Fabian Society Forum: One Year Down & Two to Go: Can Labor Win in 2007?

It's Fabian time again, and this month's Sydney forum promises to be a goodie, with rumours that John Singleton intends on regarding the event as his pitch to win the ALP's account for the 2007 election. As much as I hate Singo, I fondly recall his famous `Whinging Wendy' campaign of the early 80s which made me regard John Howard as a has-been before I'd even reached double digits. Also coming up soon is the first ever Australian Fabian Conference. It's great to see the Fabian Society going from strength to strength (and publishing an article or two of mine along the way. :) ).

Anyway, here's the details:

One Year Down & Two to Go: Can Labor Win in 2007?

It is now one year since the ALP’s fourth consecutive federal defeat. With two years to the next election, this forum will consider what Labor has to do to win in 2007.

With:

· John Singleton, Advertising executive
· Geoff Walsh, former ALP National Secretary
· Julie Owens MP, Labor Member for Parramatta

Chaired by Senator John Faulkner, President of the NSW Fabian Society

When: 6:00 to 7:30pm
Where: LHMU Auditorium, 187 Thomas St Haymarket, Sydney

I note that some (most recently Gerard Henderson have dismissed the ongoing discussion of the ALP and its internal processes as `navel gazing', but frankly, in an inversion of the old saying `if it ain't broke, don't fix it', it's only those for whom the system is working who are arguing that it shouldn't be fixed. The Liberal Party went through a similar process in the wilderness years of the 1980s and early 1990s and emerged a stronger and more coherent party. The ALP will do the same as long as it accepts the need for change.