Labor's Party Is Over
Newcastle Herald
Friday January 16, 2009
HAMILTON man John McKenzie was a train driver for 43 years until he retired, and a Labor Party member for 27 years until he gave it away about five years ago.
He rang me on Tuesday evening about his toe.We didn't end up speaking until yesterday. A talk that started with his hospital toe woes moved on to a recent incident involving police, then to a packed weekend rail trip from Newcastle to Sydney, and a 90-minute wait for a Manly ferry because demand outstripped the service by a factor of 10:1 or more.Needless to say, he doesn't think much of the NSW Government."Look at the things they're supposed to do. Health. Police. Rail. Education. Transport. And in the space of a few weeks I've had a pretty good indication of the state we're in, and it's not good," he said.He'd heard the radio yesterday morning with its talk about senior Labor figures plotting to dump Premier Nathan Rees and replace him with Frank Sartor."So," I asked him. "What do you think about Rees going and Sartor getting his job?"He laughed."Who cares?" he said. "They're all the same. These people don't represent Labor people anymore. It took me 27 years to find that out. Just shows what a slow bastard I am."And I think he just about summed up how a lot of us feel about this government. Who cares if Rees is rolled? Who cares if Sartor gets the job, rather than Della Bosca or Tony Kelly or any number of others? Who cares if Carmel Tebbutt, the nice one, is drafted? We're over it."It's time. I think everybody knows it's time," said Mr McKenzie.He is 64, and the youngest of 10 children."Obviously Catholic," he said.There wasn't much money when he was young, he started work early, got a good job that stretched out to a career, and along the way decided the Labor Party was his kind of party. For workers.He wasn't saying everything was rosy in the past. Labor was like any other organisation, with thugs and idealists, plodders and drones, ambitious types and average Joes.But broad policies were about public good, he said."It's like when you have a few people get together to form a soccer club. Things go well for a few years, people are keen and work together and the teams are successful, and there's a bigger clubhouse, then a CEO comes in, and the clubhouse becomes a registered club and people say, what happened?"That's the Labor Party now. It was put together by workers, but now there's politicians being controlled by other party people we don't even know anything about. So why should we care?"Mr McKenzie butchered his toe building a shower recess at Newcastle surf club where he's been a member for years."I shouldn't have been wearing bare feet," he said.He ripped the top off his toe almost down to bone and watched the blood flow all the way to hospital. It was 6pm, the emergency department was packed, and he wasn't happy with how the matter was handled.He accepts it was probably something that should have been handled by his doctor, but "at 6pm, with blood pouring out and in incredible pain, I thought the hospital was the place to go to".Only a few weeks ago he was walking at Horseshoe Beach with his three-year-old grandson when a man threatened him with a knife. In a complaint to Newcastle MP Jodi McKay's office he alleged the police response was inadequate. Police later told him the man had a known mental illness.Two weekends ago he caught a train to Sydney. By Wyong it was full. By Gosford and beyond it was packed.A long wait for a Manly ferry simply topped it all off.He said there was no defining moment five years ago when he left the party. No Bryce Gaudry/Jodi McKay drama. No dramatic scenes.He just knew the party was over, and he was getting out.He might even go to the dark side in 2011."I never thought I'd ever say it, but people like . . . what's his name? Barry O'Farrell, are looking much better than anyone in the Labor Party."Which is Labor's problem. And a lot of us just don't care.jmccarthy@theherald.com.au
© 2009 Newcastle Herald
