Faulkner slams Labor's 'anaemic' culture

[Matilda]

Veteran Labor Senator John Faulkner has lashed out at his "anaemic" party, which he warns risks losing a generation of voters unless it overhauls its culture.

Senator Faulkner took aim at what he called the ALP's reliance on focus groups while delivering the Wran Lecture in Sydney on Thursday night.

"We commission focus groups to find out not just what people think of what we say, but all too often, what we should be saying at all," he said.

"The party has now become so reliant on focus groups that it listens more to those who don't belong to it than to those who do."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/09/3240288.htm

I have a lot of respect for John Faulkner - he knows how to play the game, but he seems to be as honest as it's possible to be in politics. I take it this is a swipe at Mark Arbib and friends from Sussex Street, who've torn the Labor Party into shreds but seem intent on doing more of the same. Federal Labor seems about to implode the same way that NSW has done.

The real tragedy of what they've done is that they're holding the door wide open for Tony Abbott to march in, and the results will be too awful to contemplate. It's hard to believe it's just over three years since it all looked so hopeful, and the mess is entirely Labor's own doing.