The economic reforms of the Hawke and Keating era may have succeeded in increasing the living standards of Labor’s base, but they robbed the party of much of its romantic message and populist appeal. People can be moved to fight for a better world when it’s presented to them in the biblical terminology of a light on the hill, but not when it’s presented in the actuarial terminology of cost-benefit analysis. And today when Labor leaders endlessly repeat words like “productivity”, “efficiency” and “reform” all the party’s supporters hear are phrases like “longer hours”, “less pay” and “potential job losses”. Continuing economic reform will obviously always be necessary, but it can’t assume the status of the party’s religion.