What are Labor Governments for?

The newly appointed Health Minister Greg Hunt recently drew some media attention for comments pointing to the US health care system as a positive model. Whilst this comment was rightly and swiftly condemned as a catastrophic thought bubble it continues a clear pattern of Liberal Health ministers advocating reforms to broaden the role of private insurance in the Australian health system. It should go without saying that this is a pathway that Labor should absolutely reject and to all appearances the Federal Opposition remains firm in its rejection of such policy proposals. Yet more importantly this relentless Liberal effort to expand the private provision of a fundamental human need such as healthcare offers a lesson and example for any future Labor government if it can clarify the underlying values it wishes to pursue in government and beyond.

Despite the visible failure of the modern neoliberal project to deliver the sustained and shared prosperity that was promised across the developed world Right-Wing parties like the Liberals retain the same underlying assumptions in their value system and policy approach. In short they believe in the face of all evidence that the private provision of goods is both morally superior insofar as it distributes benefits to the ‘deserving’ and is by definition more efficient than public provision of such goods. As we can all see this certainty extends to the provision of even the most basic human needs such as housing, education and healthcare. One consequence of this ideological certainty is a readiness to use all of the tools at their disposal in government to pursue this end, with the Howard governments creation of the PHI rebate and the medicare surcharge standing as a case in point. The hypocrisy of this approach from self-proclaimed foes of central government planning, whilst enormous, is largely beside the point as the purpose of all government is to attempt to order society according to our value system.

Unfortunately the same clarity of purpose has too often been lacking amongst Labor governments, particularly following the economic and social upheaval of the 70s and the subsequent pursuit of a neoliberal reform agenda by the Hawke/Keating government. Yet the clear desperation for equitable change in the status quo visible in public rage at a range of targets from Corporate tax dodging to political entitlements offers an ideal environment for a relentless political pursuit of some straightforwardly egalitarian goals.

The most obvious is of course substantially increased redistribution from the rich to the poor through both tax and transfers, with reforms to capital gains tax and increases in payments like AusStudy and NewStart being clear-cut but by no means exhaustive starting points. Moving beyond direct financial redistribution Labor can and must re-affirm its commitment to the equal public provision of healthcare, education and housing as fundamental public goods. In relation to healthcare it’s not sufficient to defend Medicare, it must be expanded to cover other important health needs such as dental care and mental health care far more comprehensively. We must recognise the Gonski settlement as a flawed step towards providing our public schools with the resources and support they so desperately need that further entrenches the role of private schools and the class stratification of education that invariably follows. The public housing system must not only be rescued from its evisceration at the hands of governments of all stripes, it must be substantially expanded.

In addition to these explicit and measurable political aspirations as progressives we must remember the vital importance of vibrant Unions to the pursuit and entrenchment of progressive policy goals of all stripes. Labor governments can’t hope to replace the fundamental role of grass roots organisers and union activists in any recovery of membership amongst the broader union movement but they can and must work to create the most favourable legal climate for this long desired renewal. As such the significant limitations placed on union entry, striking, secondary boycotts and much more by the Fair Work Act were a serious error that should be corrected at the earliest opportunity, indeed the historic importance of a powerful union movement to progressive reform suggests changes along these lines should be at the top of any Labor agenda into the future.

The aforementioned policy proposals are by no means exhaustive or sufficiently detailed and the reality of the contested legislative process would leave none of them unscarred yet the straightforward principle underlying all of these proposals is the point as conservatives recognise all too clearly. Through their explicit pursuit of an abstract goal like the private provision of healthcare they’ve created self-perpetuating social and economic dynamics that shape the behavioural and intellectual framework of everyone working within that system and add to the difficulty of progressive countermeasures. Only by regaining this sense of ideological confidence can Labor hope to reverse the process.