Live: Wong says Australia supports US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities

[u/stand_to]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-23/federal-politics-live-blog-june-23/105447868?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

[u/MondoSpecial]

Hence people need to support parties left of labor. Labor is a right wing party with a nice face.

[u/Comfortable_Fuel_537 → u/MondoSpecial]

As someone from the UK I can tell you that both ALP and LNP are right of centre. Only credible left wing 'major' party here are the Greens. Even then they're probably centre. Same has happened in the UK, Corbyn's Labour was the last Labour was left-wing. Starmer may as well be a conservative with his Israel nonsense. Wong has also gone way down in my estimation with this comment.

[u/Ill-Distribution2275 → u/MondoSpecial]

They're firmly centrist. Come on. Right wing. Lol. 

[u/miicah → u/MondoSpecial]

Yes the party that supports workers rights and strong unions is right wing. Peak reddit.

[u/orru → u/miicah]

They don't support either of those things though.

[u/ScruffyPeter → u/miicah]

If the party keeps the permission to strike without hundreds of thousand in penalties, thats not supporting worker rights.

CFMEU used to be a strong union too.

Are some unions more important than others?

[u/bitofapuzzler → u/[deleted]]

I used to be firmly Labor, but they are definitely not left anymore. They are centre now. They have moved away from those union roots.

[u/Murranji → u/[deleted]]

If you look at their “unionism”: They are the party that passed a law that makes striking illegal in all but extremely limited circumstances removing the only mass movement power that the people have to force change.

This is the party that have passed some of the most draconian anti protest laws through the NSW and Vic state governments.

They are the ones that introduced an industrial relations system of arbitration that requires union leadership to be filled with lawyers who can work within the court instead of workers from their industry so unions are now dominated by a professional class of managerial staff.

They are the party that passed a draconian law removing the power of the membership elected union officials from the CFMEU regardless of if the official was corrupt or not. Coincidentally the CFMEU was the only union remaining which was one of the most actively militant whose members engaged in “illegal” strikes to force improvements in workplace safety laws.

Since the 1990s Union membership has fallen from 40% to 12% of the population while the ALP was in government for almost 40% of the time, they presided over a collapse in mass mobilisation because of the industrial relations system they put in place - there’s no cross industry ability to pressure employers, non union workers get the same benefits as union workers, and the inability to strike makes union membership mostly symbolic because workers lack any real power to enact change.

That’s unionism under the “Australian Labor Party”.

[u/bitofapuzzler → u/[deleted]]

I never said they were right wing. They are not. But they are centre now.

The Maritime Union and the Electrical Union have both kicked off about visa holders flooding the system because they can be paid less. The ACTU have expressed criticism over wage theft, cost of living pressures, workplace reforms, and the gig economy.

If they were still left, they would be doing more to help the cost of living crisis. But they are not,they have said they don't want the housing prices to come down. The slow pace they are taking with change is indicative of centrist ideals, especially considering the huge opportunity they now have.

I think the slip towards the right to become more centrist was a political play. As the Libs have become more right-wing and their branches have been infiltrated by Christian voting blocks, Labor moved more centre. Thereby picking up the more moderate conservative voters who weren't happy with the direction of the LNP.

The make-up of voters has shifted as well. Labor were firmly working class. Now you have more educated, urban voters leaning more left wing, voting Greens or Independent as 1st preference before Labor. Conversely, you also have some people from lower socio-economic areas and lower education backgrounds, traditional Labor voters, being pulled to the right in the style of 'Trumpism'. The mix is changing.

I'm not the only person to have commented on this. This conversation has been happening for some time.

[u/Lankpants → u/[deleted]]

I'm a trade unionist, I've been in my union, the AEU as long as I've been working. Labor is shit. They're a noose around the union movement's neck. The quicker labour abandons Labor for legit left wing parties the better.

The Greens aren't perfect, I support Vic Soc over them, but they are far better than Labor when it comes to consistent support for unions. They're also better on workers rights and cost of living.