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Contending Judith Brett's class: an argument about labor's past, present ... and future.

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That Labor's performance at the 2004 Federal election constituted a debacle would seem to be an understatement. In particular, the Tasmanian forests policy release may go down as one of the more unbelievable events of Australian electoral history. The comical scene of timber workers and their families in rapturous applause welcoming John Howard was as disturbing as it was plain embarrassing. That said the range of contributions in the latest Blue Book, 'After the Deluge?' (Arena Magazine no. 74) provided critical food for thought to those genuinely concerned by such happenings. Two questions immediately come to mind. Will an inwardly dysfunctional Labor actually listen to any of the critiques raised, or more importantly actually act upon them? And will any of the Australians whose life experiences are completely unrepresented or unreflected by modern Labor actually care about or read such internal ruminations? Regrettably, I doubt it. It would seem axiomatic to suggest that Labor's former core constituency is completely detached from the political process, and by association, devoid of individual 'political' interest.

In a similar vein, to argue that class no longer frames the social and political understandings of individuals and groupings and their conception of self-identity is an increasingly repeated 'truism'. However there is clear difference between such statements and arguing that class and by implication class analysis no longer matters. In that light Judith Brett's Blue Book offering, 'Good Folk Trooping All Together' and her more significant contribution Australian Liberals and the Moral Middle Classdeserve a riposte. Despite being the most significant addition to a rather patchy historiography of the Australian Right, there is room for concern in its methodological treatment and its (perhaps inadvertent) conflation of past and present conceptions of class. Australian Liberals is a major step in overcoming an unhelpful historical amnesia. If we are to understand Labor's current malaise then an understanding of past struggles and historical formations is crucial. In that light it is appropriate to examine Brett's historical repositioning of class and party politics, both past and present, on the way suggesting an alternative path to regeneration of Labor's organisation, belief and direction.

It is appropriate to review some of Brett's central arguments. Australian Liberalsis divided into roughly two parts. The first half seeks to detail the travails and political consummation of the relationship between Australian Liberals and what she evocatively describes as their core constituency, the imagined community of the 'moral middle class'. As Brett argues, 'From Deakin to Menzies, both the moral middle class and Australian Liberals were based in Protestantism, Liberal ideas of citizenship and the conservative habits of sound finance'. The latter half documents the ways in which social changes, particularly de-secularisation, have undermined this symbiotic set of relationships. The greatest strength of Brett's work (and possibly most problematic facet) is that it delves beneath the parliamentary party seeking to investigate the social bases, represented through intrinsic values and Protestant belief, which established and sustained its political organisation and representatives. Brett appropriately subsumes the various incarnations of liberals and conservatives under the name 'Liberal'. On this count, Charles Richardson, in his inadequate...

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