The Machine

This text examines the structure and dynamics of State and Federal Labor in the light of its recent history and present condition. In the wake of Australia-wide defeat at the polls and the creation of new constituencies outside their grasp, the work explores the rebuilding the Party must undertake.

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The ALP is more than 100 years old and showing signs of age. It's time for a check-up. Where is the Labor Party now and where is it going? How successful will it be in the next 100 years? "The Machine" describes a party at risk. The Australian political context is changing; can Labor adapt? The collection of essays provides a detailed overview of the Party at national, state and territory levels; analyses Labor's structure to reveal a Party struggling with varying success to come to terms with policy and electoral problems; and describes how the Party's factional nature determines how controversial policy areas are dealt with. Who now votes Labor? Labor was once the "blue collar" Party, the Party of "the battlers". No longer? In the wake of defeat and the creation of new constituencies outside Labor's present grasp, the contributors to "The Machine" provide a detailed account of the Party as it confronts the rebuilding it must undertake if it is to continue to play a major role in Australian politics. Can Labor still boast a machine the envy of other parties, or is it yesterday's machine? Can Labor regain its lost supremacy?