Reform plan poses risks for ALP

THIS week has seen the Labor Party pledge to revive its dying membership base, affirm as unbreakable its structural bond with the trade unions and resurrect multiculturalism as the key to reclaiming the ethnic vote it lost at last year's election.

It is a strange combination of reform, reaction, romance and realism. This week's multiple messages reveal where Labor as a political party is capable of radical reform and where it will shun reform to its own death.

"These recommendations will modernise Labor," former Victorian premier Steve Bracks told The Australian yesterday of the plan to revive the party's base by a cautious yet historic resort to a variation of the US primary system in candidate selection.

"We need to become a mass party again. If we want community support then we have to engage with the community. This is a turning point for Labor."

These are brave words from Bracks in the teeth of a daunting goal. How can Labor defy the march of social history and become a mass party again?

The ALP yesterday released the review report commissioned after last year's election from its "three wise men", Bracks, former NSW premier Bob Carr and senator John Faulkner.

The release creates expectations that most of the 31 recommendations will be accepted at this year's national conference. The purpose is to reverse the structural and grassroots crisis eroding the Labor Party.

The review enshrines a series of ideas: growing the ALP membership with an explicit target, giving local members more democratic power, checking top-down corporatising of the party that it brands a "sickness" and creation of an outreach organisation that locks into progressive social groups and non-government organisations to adapt the GetUp! techniques.

This week shatters any illusion about Labor ditching its links to the unions. Led by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan, a conga line of ministers and MPs trekked to the 125th anniversary of the Australian Workers Union on the Gold Coast to honour the union, its ties with Labor and hail its powerbrokers, national president Bill Ludwig and national secretary Paul Howes, the veteran and the rising star. To put the issue beyond doubt, the review troika came down unequivocally: the rule delivering unions 50 per cent of floor numbers at ALP conferences should be retained and reinforced. The overall message from Gillard and the three wise men is that Labor's identity is irrevocably tied to the unions.

The contrast is fascinating: while the unions are seen as a bedrock strength the ALP branch structure is in disrepair. "Our local branches are closing across the country on a monthly basis," Faulkner warns. In NSW alone, more than 100 branches closed in the past decade. Labor's 45,000 members constitute only 0.002 per cent of the population. The review finds this "an alarming and historic low". By contrast, GetUp! is cited to have 350,000 members. Labor must "reach out to progressive movements" to win fresh ideas and support. A new national director for party organisation should be appointed to increase membership and a portion of national conference delegates should be directly elected via the rank and file.

The most potentially far-reaching idea is to use primaries for Labor preselection contests. The aim is to drive "greater participation" by supporters and unionists. The review recommends in non-Labor held seats and where a sitting ALP member is retiring that preselection be determined on a 60:20:20 basis, with 60 per cent drawn from rank and file members, 20 per cent from affiliated trade union members and 20 per cent from a primary process involving any registered ALP voter from the electorate.

This limited start on the primary path is far too cautious. The review urges this model be "considered" for even Labor-held seats in future. Good luck. Make no mistake, vested party and factional interest will be alarmed about some of these pro-democratic changes.

Gillard cannot afford a divisive internal debate when her priority is to build her authority as Prime Minister. In welcoming the review she laid down her markers.

She will insist the ALP leader, not the caucus, selects the front bench. Second, while the ALP national conference sets the platform, her government will determine its policies. That is, Gillard will not be dictated to by the party organisation.

Asked about the review's position on ties between Labor and the unions, Bracks said: "The Labor Party has grown out of the trade union movement. This partnership has been our bedrock in the past and it will be in the future."

The review argues the unions have modernised during the past 15 years "when the party has not". It says the link with the unions means Labor has a connection "to the largest non-government organisation in Australia with two million members" and retaining this link "is vital to Labor's success in the future". End of debate.

Faithful to this philosophy Gillard, in her evening speech to the AWU, began by recognising ministers and MPs in the room, starting with the Treasurer "and long-time friend of this union, Wayne Swan, the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, who has such a special connection to this union, and then other parliamentary colleagues including Mark Bishop, Stephen Conroy, Yvette D'Ath, Don Farrell, David Feeney, Michael Forshaw, Bernie Ripoll is here, Mark Dreyfus, Mark Furner, Ed Husic, Joe Ludwig, Deb O'Neill, Graham Perrett and I think some more that I've managed to miss.

"Perhaps instead of doing a list of acknowledgments, it would be easier to say here tonight the people gathered in this room are the friends of Bill Ludwig and that would catch every category."

She hailed Ludwig as "a big man with a big heart" who "always understood that strong unionism and a strong Labor Party go hand in hand". The PM was "proud to be here and to call myself a friend of Bill Ludwig". Then she moved to acknowledge Howes. "I want to thank him for his speech a little bit earlier and I also want to say to Paul thank you for asking me to join you here for Valentine's Day," Gillard said. "I'm viewing it as a kind of Valentine's Day date, however you're viewing it, and even though, of course, your wife is here tonight." Gillard expressed her confidence the AWU "will celebrate another hundred years in the future and another hundred years beyond that".

In his own speech Swan said the official records said he joined the AWU in January 1982 but, in truth, he took out a ticket in 1974 when a sewerage maintenance worker for the Brisbane City Council. "This union has been an important part of my political life," Swan told delegates. "I have marched in the rain with the AWU. I have worked alongside you. And I have represented the hopes and aspirations of your thousands of members in the federal parliament and in the cabinet." The AWU, he said, was in good hands, "Paul's and Bill's". Praising Howes, Swan said: "The more I spend time with Paul, the more I appreciate his advice and his commitment."

Ludwig and Howes, of course, were pledged last year to the removal of Kevin Rudd. This week's celebrations were not just a tribal ritual. The backdrop was the AWU's alignment in the Rudd-Gillard contest. And Howes, having been offered such political capital from Gillard and Swan, moved to maximise its dividend.

In a series of headline grabs, he launched a class-based assault on mining major Rio Tinto, accusing its chief, Tom Albanese, of "sucking out the blood, sweat and tears of blue-collar workers". Feeding red meat to delegates, Howes said: "I have got a message for Rio Tinto. You don't own this government; you don't own this country any more. Your workforce has the right to be represented. You cannot hide behind the law. You cannot hide behind your slimy, grubby mates in the Coalition because we're coming after you. We are going to take Rio Tinto on."

It was heady stuff, redolent of Bob Hawke in his early wild days. When Trade Minister Craig Emerson offered a mild rebuke, Ludwig and Howes gunned Emerson with overkill. Rudd joined the fray on Emerson's side. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson openly censured the union. Gillard was left with no option: she had to back Emerson.

It is time for some home truths. The AWU's huffing and puffing this week did not help Gillard Labor. Indeed, it made the government look foolish. It did not help the AWU's cause on the mining tax. It contradicted the view of the three wise men that close ties with the trade unions is basic to Labor's future. Remember, the union movement can make or break the Gillard government during the present resources boom with its skill shortages. The partnership between Labor and the unions needs to be re-made under each Labor government. It failed under Gough Whitlam but succeeded under Hawke. The jury remains out on its fate under Gillard.

Meanwhile, Immigration Minister Chris Bowen affirmed this week his status as one of the most audacious and interesting ministers in this cabinet. Bowen took a risk on compassion by flying asylum-seekers to the Sydney funeral. Then he formally resurrected the concept of multiculturalism as a guiding star for Labor at a time when it was withering. This is a long-run risk. The Australian public, tolerant of diversity, remains highly equivocal about multiculturalism as a political concept.

It may help Labor with sections of the lost ethnic vote but the nation's mood is running in the direction of national unity and cohesion.