OPINION | Will a little labour be enough to save the SDP?

^{BY JAMES JIM JAMESONSON}

IT ISN'T THE FIRST time that a struggling party has decided that a new outfit might be enough to save them from electoral oblivion. Indeed, it isn't even the first time that a party has changed their name to the Australian Labor (or Labour) Party for this exact purpose. But will a rebrand be enough to save the Social Democrats?

In the past week, party leader u/Rohanite272 announced that the Social Democratic Party was effectively dead. In its place would be a reformed Australian Labor Party (ALP). Now while technically this may seem slightly exaggerated - the ALP is just the new name for the same organisation - the feeling among many in political circles was that this was a complete rebirth of the party.

The ALP/SDP has a long and proud history. A party of innovative reform which gave Australia its longest-serving prime minister since the "pre" days. Indeed, a ALP/SDP prime minister has held office since this time, longer than any other party. But it seems that the ALP/SDP hit a roadblock some time ago, and has tried fervently to keep its head above the water ever since.

That roadblock was the split of the Green Left Party (now the Greens political party) from the SDP that came as a surprise to all. Many of those who formed the new Greens political party held senior ranks within the SDP, and it seems the former party has struggled to find its footing ever since.

Clearly, those within the SDP believed that the brand was unable to be resuscitated. Time to cut loose and regroup. The move received much criticism, all from those unaffiliated with the party. The SDP was too busy involving itself with internal party matters of no interest to the electorate, proclaimed the Commonwealth Party in a written media release to the electorate about internal party matters of another party.

Evidently voters do care, or so some politicians believe.

The rebrand of the Social Democrats to the Labor Party was a bold move and clearly not done without thoughtful consideration. Whether such consideration was well-informed or not remains to be seen.

Labor have got a challenge on their hands, and they'll need to give one hell of a fight if they want to succeed.

The clock is ticking, fast. NR