Court battle for control of the Victorian Labor Party
The Victorian branch of the Labor Party is losing members due to factional battles, a court has heard amid a legal fight for control of the party.
Victoria
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A Labor office in Melbourne’s southeast lost half its members in one day during a purge on alleged branch stacking, a court stoush for control of the party in Victoria has heard.
The Supreme Court also heard claims that ethnic party members may have been unfairly targeted by the audit and that the party was in a “poor state” due to factional battles.
A group of unions this month launched a contentious challenge against Labor and want to wind back the intervention that has given control of the Victorian branch to the national executive.
The state branch was taken over last year following serious allegations of branch stacking involving former Andrews government minister Adem Somyurek, with members audited by administrators Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin.
A fresh legal battle was started after the executive this month moved to rush through preselections for safe Labor seats, including for the new electorate of Hawke, and upset a swath of Right-aligned groups.
They have argued that the intervention was illegal and that power should return to affiliated unions and local members.
Justice Tim Ginnane is now considering the case alongside another from former minister Marlene Kairouz, who is also challenging the takeover.
The Supreme Court on Thursday heard evidence from Labor Right figure Garth Head, who has provided three sworn statements criticising the national intervention as “unprecedented”.
The court was told that Mr Head’s Hotham West Labor branch went from 57 members to 17 during a November membership purge launched to tackle the problem of branch stacking.
But he said even he did not know those numbers because the party would not hand over the membership list.
“The problem was a lot of people were alienated from the Labor Party last year,” Mr Head said.
“The Labor Party’s membership has deteriorated. There was a racial discrimination as evidenced by the fact that the people who were formally excluded or (who had) membership revoked seem to be disproportionately from what we in the Labor Party would call an ethnic or new-arrival background.
“The Labor Party is in a poor, poor state.”
At the centre of the legal challenge is the seat of Hawke, with former Labor state secretary Sam Rae tipped to be a frontrunner before the legal challenge.
Sections of the party have also challenged his preselection by mounting a campaign to ensure a female candidate was nominated instead.
Mr Head said a potential candidate typically needed 10 signatures from party members living in their electorate before preselection.
The Australian Electoral Commission is still finalising the boundaries for the seat of Hawke, between Melbourne’s north west and the edge of Ballarat.
The court also heard that over the past 20 years there had been multiple occasions when candidates were preselected without a ballot.
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