An Open Letter to Julia Gillard

This letter has been sent and will have been received by the Prime Minister's office on the date of publication

The Rt.Hon. Julia Gillard
Prime Minister of Australia
Parliament House
Canberra

Dear Prime Minister

You are in luck. Out of the goodness of my heart and a deep seated suspicion about Tony Abbott’s real motives and intentions, I am going to tell you, against all the predictions of the bean counters, head kickers and media hacks, how to win the 2013 General Election.

If you follow my 10-point electoral victory charter we will be toasting you some year hence as our properly elected national leader. Here goes (in any order):

Say ‘yes’ to same-sex marriage
Nobody doubts your sincerity that marriage should be between a man and a woman. Or that Federal Parliament will back that policy view. However, neither positions are representative of the broad view of Australians. We’d guess that over 60% of us are in favour of same sex marriage. And no doubt 90% of people under 25. So rather than hide behind your view and that of the Parliament, why don’t you lead the people to an equitable result that honours our profound sense of egalitarianism and justice?
Relegate the focus on illegal boat people
The media-driven hysteria over the small number of illegal boat people that arrive each year deeply disgraces a country whose population growth has been entirely based on immigration. Your leadership is required not to fan the flames but to make sure we all see the insignificance of the problem when set against our other challenges.
Stop buttering up to mining owners
Who owns the land in which we live? We do. And a ‘we’ on the anniversary of the Mabo decision which includes all Australians not just those who can afford to employ lawyers. You need to cut through the reticence on the mining tax and employing immigrant labour by pointing out that the people own the land and have a right to a reasonable return on their equity as a result of mining leases granted and that Australian workers deserve workforce opportunities that preserve community as well as paying a decent wage.
Change the focus on corporation tax
Why do we have our intelligence insulted by corporation owners bleating about taxation when they spend huge amounts of time and money on minimizing the tax they have to pay? We need to change the tax regime to stop tax minimisation by focusing the tax impost at a different point, say on sales revenues.
Use social media as a way of gauging policy outcomes
Just as Canberra no longer represents the mood of the nation, why don’t you use social media to test reactions to broad-brush policy initiatives? To test for example your policies that you plan to take into the next election.
Ignore marginal seats
You’d be surprised how irrelevant marginal seats are in the outcome of elections. Finessing policy to seek the specific approval of marginal seat electorates tosses the baby out with the bath water. Tony Blair when he first came in to power did so with policy initiatives that flew in the face of received wisdom about what would make a difference. His abandonment of Clause 4 (the constitutional requirement that bound the UK labour party to the unions in the pursuit of the public ownership of key assets) looked scary, but he won in a landslide.
Brag about how well you have done
Your legislative program in the last two years has been amazingly effective for a government operating in a hung parliament. And as the rest of the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, the key performance indicators of our economy are brilliant. You’ve got Hawke, Keating and Rudd to thank for it – so do so! It’s the Labor Party’s long-term contribution that has made a difference – a contribution that will only go on when you are re-elected.
Ignore Tony Abbott
You don’t need to do combat with Tony Abbott. He will shoot himself in the foot if you just leave him at it. In fact he might be your most potent weapon without an assailant! Your true opponent is Malcolm Turnbull but he’s probably too powerless to be a bother before the election.
Change the ethics of the public/private debate about school funding
This is a debacle. It’s not about the money Julia. It’s about equity. All parents should have the right to choose but the choice should not be a disadvantage in terms of outcomes. All children should have the same amount of money spent on them with the private schools offering choice and public schools value.Every educational dollar has a multiplier effect on the economy that is even more powerful than Keynesian-style infrastructure investments.
Move from 'followership' to 'leadership'
Last but definitely not least we need you to act like a leader and not a follower. Your reputation has been tarnished by your failure to lead when the chips are down. Please don’t policy-shift just because the Polls suggest you should.

So there you are. The only way you can win the next election is by a supreme act of transformation. I hope I have given you ten policy items that with the right approach might just help you achieve that.

This is an open letter and will be published at www.larrikinpost.com

Kind regards,

Oliver Freeman Publisher