11 July 2000

Della Bosca Exposes Beazley and Crean

John Della Bosca, the Beazley candidate to be the next President of the ALP, has dramatically exposed the fraud and futility of the campaign waged against tax reform by his Federal leader Kim Beazley, and Mr Simon Crean.

Mr Della Bosca has rolled over Mr Beazley and Mr Crean, by acknowledging tax reform has been accepted by Australians as in the nation’s best interests and that a rollback of the GST would only increase complexity.

It is time for Mr Beazley and Mr Crean to concede their campaign has failed, that they were wrong to embark on it, and that it would be stupid to continue it.

Mr Della Bosca’s comments, as reported on tonight’s Channel 9 news by Laurie Oakes, shows there are at least some people in the Labor Party prepared to face reality and deal with it.

Mr Della Bosca is reputedly one of the shrewdest strategists in the Labor Party.

He tried unsuccessfully more than a year ago to convince Mr Beazley to abandon his campaign of negative whinging against tax reform.

Mr Beazley should have listened to him then, but it is not too late. He should do the right thing by his Party and by the Australian people. He should give up the cheap opportunism and commit himself to doing the right thing – to support the tax reform that Australia has needed for so long.