By Paul Sakkal and Kieran Rooney
Well over half of Labor’s senators would be former union officials if a unionist frontrunner is picked to fill a coveted Senate vacancy in coming weeks, sparking concerns about the party’s ability to represent a less-unionised society and a shortage of talent in party ranks.
After highly rated Labor national secretary Paul Erickson and former Victorian attorney-general Jill Hennessy turned down the vacant seat, Australian Services Union public sector branch secretary Lisa Darmanin emerged as the favourite to replace Linda White, the respected Victorian MP who died in February.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton exit the Senate.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Jostling for the position between three unionists has inflamed sharp discussions within the party about whether its selection processes were turning the Senate into a “dumping ground” for union officials seeking a sinecure, according to top figures in both the Left and Right factions concerned about the future health of the party. None of them referred to Darmanin when they raised broader concerns about party culture.
James Button, a former speechwriter to then-prime minister Kevin Rudd, said the thousands of regular members of state Labor branches should help pick senators.
Speechwriter and author James Button.
“Labor would do much better and produce better candidates,” Button, now the co-convenor of reform group Open Labor, said.
“The Senate is where you want those really good minds who are maybe not so strong on the retail politics but really good on policy issues.”
“[Open preselections] force things into the open. People have to stand up and say this is who I want to be in the Senate, these are the issues I’ll focus on, and this is why I am Labor.”
Two Labor MPs, who spoke anonymously due to fears of reprisals for criticising party culture, argued that the party must identify future candidates from new parts of the community to remain relevant as its primary vote sits at historic lows, and some centre-left parties in the Western world are struggling to form governing majorities.
Only four members of Labor’s 26-person Senate team are in the 30-person ministry. And of the 26 senators, more than half are former union officials.
“Union membership is about 12 per cent of the workforce and rapidly declining. The Senate can’t be our dumping ground for unionists unlikely to turn into leaders of the party,” one MP said.
Former attorney-general Jill Hennessy ruled herself out.Credit: Darrian Traynor
While the Labor Party’s historic and continuing ties to the union movement encourages it to send workers’ representatives to parliament, the outsized proportion of unionists and their potential to become top ministers is a headache for senior factional figures responsible for picking MPs with the capacity to run future Labor cabinets.
Both major parties are being scrutinised over their ability to look like the communities they represent. The Liberal Party is consistently chided for its low proportion of female MPs and candidates (of 26 concluded preselections for the next election in non-held seats or where MPs are retiring, 18 have been won by men).
Labor senator Jenny McAllister, an assistant minister widely viewed as a future cabinet minister, said in 2014 that Labor’s Senate preselection process was broken because rank-and-file members had no role in picking senators.
“Union leaders, parliamentarians and faction leaders who exercised enormous power under the old model need to accept that the old ways have to change,” she said at the time.
Another Labor source, who also spoke anonymously, expressed concern about the talent pool and cultural diversity within the Socialist Left faction.
The last time the Victorian Left selected a diverse MP was 23 years ago when Maria Vamvakinou entered parliament. By comparison, the Right faction in Victoria selected Indigenous woman Jana Stewart, Sri Lankan Tamil-background Michelle Ananda-Rajah and Sri Lankan-background Cassandra Fernando in the past few years.
Five Victorian party sources and MPs, speaking anonymously to detail private talks, said Darmanin would probably be anointed unless an exceptional alternative emerged.
Senior figures wanted Hennessy to take the spot while Erickson, the campaign and operational boss of the federal party, was approached by figures across the factional divide.
Neither opted to pursue the position, in Erickson’s case, because he is running Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s re-election campaign.
Some elements of the Victorian branch were concerned about Hennessy’s potential candidacy, given that she was involved in Operation Daintree, the corruption inquiry that created a political headache for former premier Daniel Andrews.
Hennessy was not found to have done anything wrong, but her role as the minister whose department authorised a questionable grant received limited scrutiny when the corruption inquiry burst into public view in 2022. Sources worried it may attract more attention if she were to enter the Senate.
Other candidates floated for the Senate vacancy include unionists Michael Watson (Electrical Trades Union) and Jo Briskey (United Workers Union). Talented staffer turned public servant Jim Round has also been mentioned.
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