Pending redistribution of Victorian seats fuels Labor Party factional infighting
A Labor branch meeting which saw a polarising figure punched in the head has ignited a war of words between senior members of the party. Here’s what sparked the rift.
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A Labor branch meeting which turned violent on the weekend has exposed a deepening factional rift within the Andrews Government.
A war of words has now broken out among senior Labor figures as a looming redistribution of state seats fuels internal instability across the Victorian party.
But Premier Daniel Andrews has tried to distance himself from the western suburbs branch meeting where former party preselection candidate Jasvinder Sidhu was punched in the head.
“I’ve got more far more important matters to worry about than what are absolutely internal Labor Party matters,” he said on Monday.
The weekend clash heightened tensions between Labor factional powerbrokers and sparked accusations of using new members to seize control of suburban branches ahead of the next round of state preselections.
A redistribution, to be held over the next two years, is expected to lead to the creation of a new seat in Melbourne’s west and the abolition of a seat in the southeast.
Some party figures say Labor Right and Industrial Left forces aligned with Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek have been seeking to increase their influence in branches across the western suburbs, where the boundaries of seats will likely shift.
One Labor source warned that people including government ministers needed to be “conscious of their conduct”.
“There are real legal and political consequences,” the source said.
Another insider suggested the western suburbs were a “proxy war” for what some expect to be further factional turmoil in the southeast.
The fallout from the brawl involving Mr Sidhu has also seen Andrews Government staffers caught in the crossfire, with factional operatives on both sides suggesting they were involved in branch-stacking operations.
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One senior Labor figure raised questions about the involvement of staff in Attorney-General Jill Hennessy’s office.
“Time for Jill to stand up to her (Socialist Left) factional overlords before she becomes collateral damage,” the source said.
Uncertainty about the future of some Victorian federal Labor MPs has also added to what another source described as “tinder dry” conditions for factional brawling.