Going through labour
February 8th, 2008
In one of the worst cases of public misspellings I’ve seen in a hell of a long time, the Australian Labour Party – the political party currently in power in Australia, both federally and in every state – has suddenly become unable to spell its own name!
Now I normally vote for Labour, but after seeing the huge banners behind Kevin Rudd when he was making his acceptance speech last year, I’m seriously considering my loyalties. After all, why would I vote for someone who can’t even spell their own name!! Not only have they embarassed themselves with their banners, but now even their website repeats this misspelling at every opportunity.
For the benefit of those at the ALP responsible for these things, the spelling is L-A-B-O-U-R. Yes, Virginia, there is a ‘u’ in that word.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions – the peak body representing workers and their rights – seems quite able to manage it. Even though they’re the gatekeepers of the labour movement in Australia, the word ‘labour’ doesn’t appear too often on their website. But when it does, at least they’ve spelled it right. Are the ALP trying to distance themselves from the ACTU?
The ALP has extended this embarassment all the way to the Australian Electoral Commission. According to the AEC’s website, even the ALP’s registration data is misspelled. If only the law was clearer about ensuring that political parties can only have real words in their name.
Let’s make this clear people: there is NO SUCH WORD as “labor” in Australia – it doesn’t exist. The word is LABOUR.