Labor’s Left-Bloc Rejects Gillard’s Uranium and Same-Sex Union Policy Revisions
It appears that Prime Minister Julia Gillard faces opposition from among the left-leaning members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) following outright dissensions announced over the weekend by Senator Doug Cameron.
Calling his left faction's stance as the conscience component of the Labor leadership, Cameron declared that he cannot back the recent pronouncements made by Ms Gillard outlining the party's revised policy on same-sex union and the lifting of Australia's uranium sale ban to India.
Both new positions on the matter articulated by Ms Gillard, Cameron said, contradict in-placed policies that the ALP leadership has adhered to fro years and any form of changes not reflecting Labor principles would be opposed by his bloc.
Speaking before the 150 Labor delegates gathered in Canberra on Sunday, Cameron scored the compromise offered by Ms Gillard on the same-sex marriage question, which dangled the option of conscience vote in lieu of a clear accommodation of gay union that is protected and sanctioned by Australians laws.
Cameron called Ms Gillard's proposal as an unacceptable compromise that would undermined previous gains achieved by the party.
"The platform should be changed to remove discrimination ... and we're saying there shouldn't be one," the leftist senator was quoted by the Australian Associated Press (AAP) as saying.
His remarks were aired following growing oppositions among prominent Labor leaders regarding Ms Gillard's controversial turnaround on the policies, with cabinet member Senator Penny Wong recently expressing her dismay on the matter.
In an article she penned for a publication, Wong argued that the issue of gay marriage and equal rights must be championed by the ALP and thus should be included within its agenda and platform.
She rejected the conscience voted floated by Ms Gillard as a viable alternative.
Also, Cameron labelled Ms Gillard's new uranium sale policy towards India as a "sell-out of everything we've stood for as a party over the last 40 years."
Not only that the plan would run in counter with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, in which Australia is a signatory, Cameron insisted that the Prime Minister's acts would create precedents that would make ALP policies as not representative of its members' belief.
"We need to democratise the operation of the party, and by democratising, I mean giving a voice to the members of the party," Cameron said in calling for party reforms that would prevent dictations by the few on the so-called 'rank and file members'.