The Light on the Hill

Modern Labor would do itself a real favour if it would get back to its roots.

It would also be doing the people of Australia who believe in a centre-left social democratic party an even bigger favour.
Modern Labor is poll driven, has lost its values, politically assassinates its own Prime Minister, for no other reason than it thinks it 'might lose' under him.
Well, I disagree. Kevin Rudd had the power of incumbency and with his stature, would have led Labor to victory on August 21st.
Julia Gillard had no legitimacy of incumbency and Australia knew it.
Perhaps you all should go back to the "Light on the Hill" and reflect on your own disgraceful actions of the past two months.

We are the people who matter, not your backroom back stabbing self indulgent power brokers from the right. Shame on you all. And get back to your values or the rank and file will do it for you!

Ben Chifley Speech - The light on the hill

Ben Chifley - The light on the hill

I have had the privilege of leading the Labor Party for nearly four years. They have not been easy times and it has not been an easy job. It is a man-killing job and would be impossible if it were not for the help of my colleagues and members of the movement.

No Labor Minister or leader ever has an easy job. The urgency that rests behind the Labor movement, pushing it on to do things, to create new conditions, to reorganise the economy of the country, always means that the people who work within the Labor movement, people who lead, can never have an easy job. The job of the evangelist is never easy.

Because of the turn of fortune's wheel your Premier (Mr McGirr) and I have gained some prominence in the Labor movement. But the strength of the movement cannot come from us. We may make plans and pass legislation to help and direct the economy of the country. But the job of getting the things the people of the country want comes from the roots of the Labour movement - the people who support it.

When I sat at a Labor meeting in the country with only ten or fifteen men there, I found a man sitting beside me who had been working in the Labor movement for fifty-four years. I have no doubt that many of you have been doing the same, not hoping for any advantage from the movement, not hoping for any personal gain, but because you believe in a movement that has been built up to bring better conditions to the people. Therefore, the success of the Labour Party at the next elections depends entirely, as it always has done, on the people who work.

I try to think of the Labor movement, not as putting an extra sixpence into somebody's pocket, or making somebody Prime Minister or Premier, but as a movement bringing something better to the people, better standards of living, greater happiness to the mass of the people. We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labor movement would not be worth fighting for.

If the movement can make someone more comfortable, give to some father or mother a greater feeling of security for their children, a feeling that if a depression comes there will be work, that the government is striving its hardest to do its best, then the Labour movement will be completely justified.

It does not matter about persons like me who have our limitations. I only hope that the generosity, kindliness and friendliness shown to me by thousands of my colleagues in the Labour movement will continue to be given to the movement and add zest to its work.

Ben Chifley Speech - The light on the hill