Labor plans 'country caucus' to tap regional voters alienated by budget
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Version 0 of 1. Federal Labor is preparing to establish a “country caucus” that would meet separately before the main caucus and could use its numbers to ensure policy takes regional and rural Australia into account. The move is part of a Labor strategy aimed at winning support in regional electorates and is considered crucial after the Coalition’s first budget hit low- and middle-income earners, more prevalent in rural Australia. On Tuesday night the New South Wales Right faction endorsed the NSW farmer, firefighter and leading rural advocate, Vivien Thomson, in Labor’s No 3 winnable spot in the Senate ticket for the next federal election. Her endorsement, led by the NSW general secretary, Jamie Clements, was seen as part of the move to diversify Labor’s appeal in rural Australia. Joel Fitzgibbon, as agricultural spokesman and member for the regional seat of Hunter, is the architect of the country caucus idea. He said while the rural group was a “work in progress”, he hoped it would eventually review the regional impact of every major piece of Labor policy and generate ideas to benefit the bush. “We are currently looking at ways we might engage on rural and regional Australia more formally and better as a caucus,” he told Guardian Australia. “We hope to get country members and like minds together to become a clearing house for policy; generating ideas and when necessary using our collective weight to ensure policy takes into account regional and rural Australians.” If it goes ahead, the proposal would mirror the Coalition’s pattern in parliamentary sitting weeks, in which National party members meet before the Liberal-National joint party meetings. Labor party strategists believe the reaction to the Coalition’s budget has provided an opportunity to win back support in rural areas and woo a constituency with a demographic more suited to Labor’s philosophy. Fitzgibbon has just completed a drought tour and in an unusual move for Labor, he ran a “matter of public importance” on the effect of the budget on rural and regional Australia. “The prime minister's first budget was a shocker for rural and regional Australia,” Fitzgibbon told the parliament in May. “It is fair to say that those on the other side of the chamber spend a fair bit of time talking about the interests of rural and regional Australia, but they are all talk – very rarely do they deliver. “It is the fact that this budget, with its tax increases and its funding cuts, falls disproportionately on rural and regional Australia. If you put up fuel taxes it adds to transport costs, and that fuel tax becomes embedded in everything we purchase in rural and regional Australia, including our food. This is a big hit on people who live in the bush.” Fitzgibbon went on to name cuts to schools, health, aged pensions and welfare for young people, who in rural areas, do not have access to the services and jobs available in the city. |