Tear down that wall, Senator Faulkner

My piece (tear down that wall) reacting to Senator Faulkner's Wran memorial lecture last night has been published on the Conversation this afternoon.

I argue that the time for tinkering at the edges is over, only a major opening up of the ALP's pre-selection processes can reverse the decline Faulkner so accurately depicts.

I have also written some other pieces recently on this general theme:

- Paul Howes and the mysterious membership figures

- Howes and the carbon tax ultimatum

- Nowhere to go: Unions and the ALP

- Gillard's Whitlam Oration: unions, greens, equality and opportunity

- Comeback: What NSW Labor needs to do now

- Rodney Cavalier: "Power Crisis"

You can also download my paper to the Australian Political Science Association at the end of last year on the unions-ALP, based on interviews with ALP MPs and union officials done for my PhD thesis.

Other interesting reactions to Faulkner's speech:

- Guy Rundle at Crikey