Ron Perkins, Perth
Media coverage of the March 11 Victoria Park by-election campaign has been marked by indifference, reflecting the fact that the seat has been held by the Labor Party continuously since 1953. A 16% swing would be needed to oust Labor.
Labor candidate Ben Wyatt has run a campaign that assumes he'll win, full of motherhood statements about better services, getting tough on crime and graffiti, and stronger "anti-hoon" laws for a safer community. It is almost indistinguishable from the Liberals' "law and order" based election campaign.
Commenting on Wyatt's campaign, Socialist Alliance candidate John Tattersall told 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, "Labor and Liberal candidates are only too happy to address the symptoms, but not the cause. If young people had meaningful jobs, rather than just casual, piecemeal work, they might feel more a part of society. And if Labor was making a real fist of addressing casualisation and outsourcing, people might feel they have a safer, more assured future.
"My experience has been that not knowing if you will be able to pay next week's bills, or if you will be able to provide for your kids, because you have an insecure or low-paid job, creates all sorts of tensions. If you generalise this across society, things will only get worse as John Howard's Work Choices kicks in. We will see more burglaries, more anti-social behaviour and more violent crime.
"But I can't see how the 'law and order' dished out by Liberal or Labor will make any difference. Our protest this week outside of the labour-hire mob Skilled Engineering got a great response from workers because they know they are being ripped off and having their living standards cut. This is the sort of stuff Labor should be confronting if they are genuine about building a safer community."
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, March 8, 2006.
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