Jamie Clements must go, and go quietly following promise to not go near former female ALP candidate

THE fact that Labor’s No. 1 NSW powerbroker was prepared to sign an undertaking that prevents him going anywhere near a woman who is a former candidate for the party speaks volumes.

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• EXCLUSIVE: Staffer labels ‘disgusting’ ALP as a party of filth

JAMIE Clements has to go, and go quietly.

The fact that Labor’s No. 1 NSW powerbroker was prepared to sign an undertaking that prevents him going anywhere near a woman who is a former candidate for the party speaks volumes.

He had the opportunity to fight to clear his name in open court and squibbed it.

Stefanie Jones.

Jamie Clements.

What happens now when Clements attempts to recruit a female preselection candidate for the federal election?

His credibility has been irreparably damaged despite his denials.

Clements also now has a double cloud hanging over him, with a NSW Electoral Commission investigation into allegations he passed on the confidential electoral roll records of a man on the north coast, Craig Wilson, who was later threatened. (Clements denies wrongdoing here too.)

And there are two damaging reports that have gone to Labor’s head office in the past two months about the conduct of the party under Clements’ watch — one is from former Gillard staffer Jack Whelan which alleges lack of accountability over the use of union credit cards and cars.

The other is from Jane Needham SC about the culture of the party. The Needham report found that: “Issues identified in the party include: women being given less prestigious roles than men, sexualised environments being accepted (sex stories, use of crude descriptions for women, reference to women’s presumed sexual history) and denigration of women on the basis of marital status or for not having children.”

One MP put it to me thus yesterday: “I think something has to be done. I just think this has gone on for too long.

Jamie Clements’ lawyers leaving the Downing Centre.

“I came from the private sector. This sort of stuff doesn’t get tolerated in the private sector.”

MPs are united in disgust against Clements but are too afraid to speak publicly for fear there could be recriminations from Sussex Street.

One perceptive commenter on a Telegraph opinion piece this week summed it up when he said: “In all reality, (Opposition Leaders) Shorten & Foley don’t have the power to get rid of Clements unless HE himself decides to go and what’s even worse, both Shorten & Foley know it, why do you think both have been so silent on the whole affair.”

A feature of the current scandal over the past few days is that Liberals have been asking me why Labor does not just get rid of Clements given all the allegations.

“There’s such a lack of support (and) as long as the party has people like (that in it), the filth ... the continuation of disgusting treatment of women will continue,” says Stefanie Jones. Picture: Justin Lloyd

They don’t understand that the position of general secretary is different to the Liberals’ state director; Clements holds all the cards, with union backing, and the fact he has decided so many preselections gives him support in the parliament.

A meeting of the senior party officers of Labor occurs today and a meeting of the party’s state executive administrative committee at the end of the month, ahead of Labor’s state conference.

Senior Labor people must surely be wondering how long Labor can continue to haemorrhage over this matter.

As Stefanie Jones put it in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph yesterday: “The fact you've got people at the top saying this is OK behaviour ... it filters through to the MPs.”

It’s taken a 27-year-old woman to expose what’s wrong with the culture of the Labor Party, but Jones says if she had her time over again she wouldn’t bother, such is the lack of support she received from the Labor Party leadership and organisation.

That is the biggest indictment of all.