James Campbell on factional shenanigans leading up to rival Labor MPs’ dining room stoush

TO understand the confrontation between two rival state Labor MPs you need to get your head around the factional shenanigans that have consumed the state ALP since just before Christmas, writes James Campbell.

Whether the Members Dining Room blue between Adem Somyurek and John Eren blows this all up remains to be seen.

TO understand the confrontation between two state MPs — which, depending on whom you believe, may or may not have involved a butter knife being wielded in the elegant surrounds of the Members Dining Room which overlooks the magnificent gardens of Parliament House — you need to get your head around the factional shenanigans that have consumed the state ALP since just before Christmas.

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These tectonic plate shifts in the factions seem to happen every 15 years and completely change the balance of power in the party.

On this occasion, a bunch of unions led by the CFMEU walked out of the Socialist Left with the intention of forming an alliance with the Labor Right, which is simultaneously on the verge of uniting for the first time in years.

The man more than any other who is responsible for putting that deal together — with the encouragement of Bill Shorten — is the alleged butterknife wielder Adem Somyurek.

In any factional re-­alignment, there are winners and losers, and the losers in this case are the group of Right-wingers formerly known as “the Cons” after their now-retired leader ­Stephen Conroy. John Eren, the other party to Wednesday night’s blue, is one of them.

The Cons are over-­represented in the ministry and it is widely assumed that if one of them were to be culled after the next election, that person would be Eren.

But the sudden emergence of text messages from Somyurek to Eren, in which he promises to “f---” the federal member for Corio, Richard Marles, shows this is not really about the Sports Minister’s future.

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What’s he got to do with it?

Well, Eren is close to Marles — some people would unkindly suggest he’s a wholly owned subsidiary — and Marles has been in a major sulk over the deal to unite the Right.

Why? What’s his problem with a deal that will give his faction control of the party in Victoria?

Part of the reason is that the Cons will not be in the driving seat in the new faction but that the view in Canberra is that despite his long association with Shorten, Marles is an Albo man at heart.

Indeed, in recent weeks, Somyurek has claimed to his supporters that Marles told him that while he in theory approves of the new arrangements, he just can’t get behind them because it’s a Bill thing.

Whether the Members Dining Room blue blows this all up remains to be seen.