I was out at Ipswich the other day, to do an interview with Geraldine Doogue for a show she’ll be broadcasting on the pivotal Queensland seat of Blair. We sat down to have a chat at Murphy’s pub, next to T. J. Ryan House, the home of the Ipswich Workers Club and the Trades and Labor Council. Ipswich isn’t the big union and working class town it once was, because it was hit hard by the globalisation of the Australian economy in the late 80s and early 90s. The coal ran out, and the Goss government shut down the railway workshops which had been a large local employer. The Hanson phenomenon is better explained by economic changes than some sort of purely Quinceland racial redneckism in many ways.
Cruelly, the attempts of a fairly enlightened city council in the late 90s and early 2000s to reinvent Ipswich as something of an information and creative economy hub on the back of the 1998 opening of a local campus of UQ were probably stymied by the rep Pauline gave the place. It’s a pity in more ways than one, because it’s a nice town. Rather like Newcastle, a lot of the economic life of the city has been sucked towards the metropolis as it’s increasingly become a dormitory suburb for Brisbane, as have the new houses along the Warrego Highway, also in Blair. So the CBD is a bit of a ghost town during the day. But interestingly orange shirted Rights at Work campaigners were out and about in the searing heat, and on the way back to Brissie I saw quite a few of them near a shopping centre along the Ipswich motorway planning their doornocking.
As I’ve suggested before, it’s seats like Blair where part time and casual employment are crucial to maintaining modest household incomes that will be particularly prone to a WorkChoices backlash.
Joe Hockey’s been near invisible since he embarrassed himself mightily twice in the early stages of the campaign, first claiming that unions were irrelevant (and thus presumably not that scary) and secondly, talking about “our fear campaign”. As far as I can tell, he’s only popped up once since those twin gaffes to make some rather absurd claims about Maxine McKew.
As well as the subliminal counter to WorkChoices angst in the jobs theme I wrote about recently, I suspect the government have decided to hope that it will fade away as an issue if they just don’t mention IR. But Labor is now ramping up the WorkChoices negative, with its first tv ad on the topic. And if Uncle Joe turns up to the debate with Julia Gillard next week, we can expect Labor to run heavily on the back of that event. But, all the while, there are people in orange t shirts all over the marginals talking to voters about WorkChoices. That’s not something that features on the tv news or in the headlines. But it’s going to be effective, precisely because I don’t think a lot of voters need a lot of reminding…
Cross-posted at PollieGraph.
I’m in Moreton, the election posters for the Liberals feature the candidate Hargrave, but for Labour it’s “Your rights at work” signs. I think the latter will press more buttons.
That’s the way I want to remember Howard and Costello – as signposts that we travel past and leave behind.
Not nearly as invisible as Phillip Ruddock, who embodies some equally abhorrent political baggage. Ruddock has a safe seat on Sydney’s north shore, but it will be an interesting one to watch on election night.
Brendan Nelson is still mostly laying low. Coonan’s gone quiet. I doubt we’ll see much more of Kevin Andrews… As a “team” they are more injury-prone than Sydney FC!
As for Ipswich, you are quite right about the Hanson effect on it’s image. I moved from Sydney to the Gold Coast seven years ago, and I still get hairs bristling on the back of my neck as soon as I reach the Logan Motorway… I don’t like to slow down till I’m well past Toowoomba!
Solution: sack the coach.
Yes, that’s a great advertisement, precisely because that is its subliminal message. Very clever.
Ipswich is a lovely little down. Its reputation as a redneck backwater is quite undeserved.
The Orange campaign has been going a lot longer that the last three weeks. Try two and a half years, and you have some idea about that ALP Primary vote number. It’s a lovely little number, don’t you think? I especially love its ‘toughness’ in the face of being called ‘soft’ all the time, by those very clever pollsters and their very clever, rich, handsome and influential friends.
I mean how could people possibly decide that they understand where all this is going? We were so sure that banging on about boongs and lattes would be enough.
Maybe if you took the time to stop you wouldn’t have such one eye’d opinions. Being born, bred and bringing my family up in Ipswich, I can tell you that the Hanson effect was an embarassment to us all. But what town doesn’t have to put up with their embarassments. Gold Coast having a bogan rep, that loves to have bouncers put people in hospital and has a drug rep.
I’m sure some of the people of Andrews electorate would be also embarassed by his and the governments conduct. Hanson opened the racism gate, but the government walked through it and implemented the policies. In that we all should feel embarassed and ashamed.
Mark, the town centre is now a business centre and the shopping has been moved to the new complex at North Ipswich. Ipswich had suffered from a employment downturn in the late 80′s/90′s and if wasn’t for Brisbane being so close the city’s employee’s would have suffered more.
On saying that in 2007, their are several mulit-national companies that are planning/building their business in Ipswich as well as the construction of the recycle water plant.
I went to the 2006 YR@W campaign in Ipswich, I was suprised that their was school children as well as teachers, and lots of blue collar workers. I understand that they have a very organised campaign in which they have alot of support.
In the Latrobe Valley, central Gippsland (Victoria) there’s an anti-Workchoices orange caravan.
When not seen driving along the Princes Highway, it’s parked beside the Highway. Has been visible for several months now. Very effective roadside advertising (complemented by TV ads, Uncle Joe, Julia, ACTU spokespersons, Kevin07, etc)
PS: relevant seats: McMillan, Gippsland… and a few drivers may be heading to Eden Monaro?
Yep, that’s what I’m saying. I worked out there for 6 months in 2004. I like the joint.
In NSW John “Robbo” Robertson UnionsNSW secretary is looking to institutionalise the YR@W Committees as an ongoing arm of the union movement.
While there is some issues of discipline/control of groups they have been very effective in getting people involved in campaigning.
It has brought out people of all ages who had previously be demoralised by the current party structure.
In NSW we are waiting for the Federal election to finish and the privatisation of the NSW electricity and parts of the public transport system. The YR@W committees organisation in NSW will be turned on to the Iemma Govt.
I agree…had plenty of good times in Ipswich during the 80s, early 90s…haven’t been there for some time tho.
Interestingly, those in my wife’s family who support Hanson (it’s hard to convince them otherwise) tend to talk about Australia & farmers being “sold down the drain” rather than race-based issues. But they do tend to repeat the same ole garbage that comes out of the Morning Shows & Current Affairs stuff from 7 & 9. Pretty sad really. Still, i’ve seen a shift of late…plenty of them don’t trust Howard & Work Choices. Fingers crossed.
Good stuff Mark.
aj, I promise I will give it another try one day. And you are quite right about the Gold Coast – hoons, Indy, schoolies, the home of Big Brother, embarrassingly safe Liberal seats… a lot to cringe about! I used to drive through here pretty fast too, back in the day…
I lived in Ipswich for a couple of years we were over in Karna Downs but used to go to Brothers Leagues on tues and sunday,my wife had cancer and was being treated at Prince Charles,she had Asbestoes Cancer.
I quite liked it I assume it has changed a bit since I left two and a half yrs ago
Trouble for the Ryan Liberals in adjoining seat too.
We (hubby & two, young adult, children) have lived in Ipswich for the -past 18 years. The changes over this time have been amazing. It is great place to live. The Pauline Hanson era was a great embarrassment. What baffles me is that she is having another go.
I have great hopes that Mr Thompson is history. His bullsh*t on the motorway is very frustrating. The widening to three lanes could have been completed by now and plans for the future bi-pass (that would still be needed) could continue if the current govt’s (state & federal) could only see past the politics.
Every marginal seat seems to have a YRAW campaign made up of at least a couple of hundred activists (if my electorate is anything to go by, only a very small minority are ALP members). I find it astonishing that virtually no one from the Canberra press gallery has had the wit to stand out from the pack, get off the bus and the government-provided jets, and report what is a really interesting story. Enterprising journalists from the New York Times, say, would have been all over the story of a truly grass-roots, old-fashioned, block-by-block, shoe-leather campaign.
I’ve been letter-boxing my suburb every week for the YRAW campaign for about 18 months now. The Canberra press gallery are mostly just a big waste of space.
P.S. I lived near Ipswich for a few years as a kid – it’s a great town. I moved from a place where kids often judged you on the kind of house you lived in or what your parents did for a living, and Ipswhich was such a relief from all that. I felt like I could be a kid there.
The most accepting, egalitarian sort of place I’ve ever been.
Ipswhich?…..sorry about the spelling – honestly, I did live there.
That would be Karana Downs, John R. My brother and his wife lived there for 18 years on 3 acres. It seemed more like outer Brisbane than Ipswich.
I went up there with Mark and hung around while he did his thing with Geraldine Doogue. A guy in an orange shirt got me to fill in a survey with two questions.
The first question was, “Do you know that Cameron Thompson voted for WorkChoices 23 times?”
Being truthful, no I didn’t.
“If re-elected, do you think he would vote for Costello’s changes to WorkChoices?”
“Yes, of course.”
He looked relieved and asked, “So how do you think things are going?”
He was joined by a mate and we chatted for about 10 minutes. (We were in the mall and I swear no-one went by.)
They opened up when they recognised my true leftness. They weren’t all that keen on the Ruddster, but enthusiastic about Gillard and Greg Combet. Somewhat equivocal about Lindsay Tanner.
I hung out in a caf for over an hour and only 5 people came in other than Mark and me. The place was dead, dead. Nice people though.
I take it people weren’t looking scared by the scary unionists, Brian?
And speaking of Evil Unions..
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/story/0,25197,22694236-5014046,00.html
Kim, no way! They were lovely gentle people.