Godfrey Moase is an executive director with the United Workers Union in Melbourne, Australia. His views are his own.
The Liberal Party’s plan for a “gas-fired recovery” is not just the product of climate change denialism. It’s a class-conscious scheme to guarantee the profitability and continued hegemony of mining and fossil fuel capital long into Australia’s future.
For both the Australian and British Labor Parties, 2019 was a year of defeat. Neoliberals in both countries drew a trite, predictable conclusion: Jeremy Corbyn and Bill Shorten were too radical. Not only are the parties incomparable, but the Australian example proves that a centrist would have lost just as badly.
The Australian establishment has unleashed a wide-ranging attack on the country’s labor movement.