NSW Labor Right’s might in balance
Is a new leader the answer for NSW Labor’s dominant Right faction?
The mood in the auditorium at the Trades Hall in Sydney was subdued as members of the once storied NSW Labor Right faction — officially known as Centre Unity — filed in just before 6pm on Monday.
Members of the grouping, famous for its “whatever it takes” ethos, took their seats in the cascading stand looking down on a raised platform. They were surrounded by union banners from another age. It was the same room where Ben Chifley gave his “light on the hill” speech in 1949.
They were there to perform a unique ritual: the elevation of one of their own as convener of the faction. There were also two other tasks: to effectively appoint the next assistant secretary and secretary of NSW Labor. Bob Nanva, the national secretary of the Rail Tram and Bus Union, has coveted the top job at NSW Labor for years.
Nanva’s nomination was moved by outgoing assistant secretary Pat Garcia and federal opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen, who skipped an opposition frontbench meeting in Canberra to be there. There were no other candidates. A few others spoke, including Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey and state MP Prue Car. The motion was carried with a resounding “aye” and by acclamation.
Nanva had already canvassed support among unions aligned to the faction, including the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, the Australian Workers Union, the Transport Workers Union, the Health Services Union and the Electrical Trades Union. He also spoke to MPs, former ministers and party elders. The faction meeting was a formality, just as the loyal foot soldiers expect it to be.
The meeting was chaired by Mark Lennon, the president of NSW Labor and former secretary of Unions NSW. He was joined at a table opposite the grandstand-style seating by Garcia — who is exiting the infamous Sussex Street address to run Catholic Health Australia — and party vice-president and NSW MP Tara Moriarty.
On Sunday the party’s federal leader, Anthony Albanese, and state leader Jodi McKay announced a review into the governance and administration of NSW Labor. McKay said there would be no appointment of a new general secretary until the review by former attorney-general Michael Lavarch was completed.
Party leaders out in cold
But the NSW Right faction, where union leaders hold sway, will not bow to Albanese or McKay, who have next to zero influence. It is telling that Nanva was not only endorsed to be the faction’s candidate for assistant secretary — nominations officially close on Friday — but also was endorsed to be the next secretary of NSW Labor. McKay and Albanese have no say.
The review will focus on the role of the secretary, with a view to improving accountability and transparency, and also the party’s legal obligations regarding fundraising and donations. There is no doubt change is needed to the governance of Labor’s biggest branch.
Albanese, a left-wing factional powerbroker and former assistant secretary of NSW Labor, would have surely savoured the chance to make life difficult for his former factional foes. He talks about “fighting Tories” but has fought the NSW Labor Right faction for 40 years.
The problem, though, is that the review will not address the party’s factionalisation. Albanese and McKay can talk all they like about cultural reform but nothing will change until the factional grip over the party is loosened. How ironic that a day after the review was announced, the NSW Right faction met in secret to decide the next party secretary.
Nanva will be the 13th secretary of NSW Labor in the past 50 years. George Houssos, an experienced campaigner and ETU official, is frontrunner to become assistant secretary once Nanva is elevated to the top job. Others talked about for assistant secretary include Ian McNamara, Dominic Ofner, Sam Crosby and Andrew Downes.
Hard-headed moderates
The NSW Labor Right faction was born in the divisive struggle within the party over Jack Lang’s dictatorial leadership in the late 1930s. The new faction that emerged — an alliance of officials, unions, MPs and party members — succeeded in making Bill McKell state leader in 1939.
The purpose of the faction was to be philosophically moderate and politically pragmatic, recognising that the party was always a cause for power, and that winning government was the ultimate prize. The model that delivered success — lengthy NSW Labor governments from 1941 to 1965, from 1976 to 1988 and from 1995 to 2011 — was supported by a co-operative relationship between unions, MPs and the party office. The secretary of NSW Labor, and the convener of the NSW Right, was the linchpin.
The faction prided itself on its kingmaker status by making and breaking state and federal Labor leaders. Think Joe Cahill, Gough Whitlam, Neville Wran, Bob Hawke, Barrie Unsworth, Paul Keating, Bob Carr and Kevin Rudd in its better days. The faction was instrumental in those leaders’ elevation, which gave it authority through the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond.
Keating, probably the NSW Right’s greatest product, always argued: “Where goes NSW, so goes Australia.” The faction was always hard-headed, practical and logical. It stood against communist influence in the party and against the more extreme positions of the Left faction. It used its numbers to promote, support and defend outsiders such as Chifley, Whitlam and Wran when the Left faction was often hostile to them.
Although the NSW Right is often portrayed as ruthless and without sentimentality, and is often ridiculed for its Tammany Hall-style system of patronage and preferment, it is the combination of unity and loyalty that has been the bedrock of its influence and electoral success.
These qualities traditionally have been balanced by having party secretaries with sound judgment, a sense of proportion and moderation. This is why the faction has become undone over the past decade, along with bitter feuds between rival union secretaries, MPs and the party office. It has been a toxic mix where the egos of factional figures have often gone unchecked.
Reputation in ruins
Today, the NSW Right has become riven with scandal, its campaigning skills are diminished, its prestige is tarnished, its national influence has been reduced, and its ability to produce or sponsor future leaders is on the wane. While the capacity of the faction to renew should not be underestimated, even the most optimistic members concede the outlook has never looked so gloomy.
It has been a bruising few years. Several state MPs in Kristina Keneally’s NSW Labor government were found to be corrupt and jailed. She was made premier in 2009 with the backing of sub-faction bosses Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Ian Macdonald, who she returned to cabinet.
NSW Labor general secretary Kaila Murnain — whose departure from the party office is still be negotiated but is believed to be imminent — was suspended over revelations at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption concerning the receipt and disclosure of a $100,000 cash donation dropped off to the party office in an Aldi shopping bag, purportedly from Chinese businessmen Huang Xiangmo.
Jamie Clements, her predecessor, was forced to quit over sexual harassment allegations in 2016. He too has been questioned by ICAC about donations and influence peddling. Sam Dastyari, who handed over to Clements when he became a senator in 2013, was forced to quit parliament after he used a Chinese donor to pay a travel bill and departed from Labor policy on the South China Sea.
As the NSW Labor secretary doubles as convener of the NSW Labor Right faction, they have been able to wield considerable power in Macquarie Street in Sydney and on Capital Hill in Canberra. Dastyari, Clements and Murnain had the ear of party leaders, played key roles in campaigns and were powerbrokers at national conferences of the party.
Friction within
The NSW Right faction remains the largest grouping in the federal parliamentary Labor Party, but it is no longer as unified as it once was.
The faction’s convener in Canberra is Joel Fitzgibbon. But Fitzgibbon backed Albanese to become leader after the federal election and ran a campaign against its brightest star, Bowen, taking the reins after the party’s shattering defeat. Keneally and Tony Burke also made it clear they backed Albanese rather than one of their own from the NSW Right or anyone from the national right, such as Jim Chalmers. So the leadership of the federal party went to the NSW Right’s long-time nemesis, Albanese. The leadership of the state party went to McKay, who won a combined MP and membership ballot with Murnain’s backing. McKay is a faction outsider but a fellow traveller.
Albanese’s game
There was a split in the NSW Right when Albanese insisted that Keneally join the federal opposition frontbench earlier this year. This meant the respected Ed Husic had to make way. Keneally did not have majority support in the NSW Right to join the frontbench. Albanese also insisted she become deputy Senate leader. This meant Don Farrell had to stand aside.
Keneally is widely disliked in the NSW Right faction. She led NSW Labor to its worst election defeat, in 2011. She lost the Bennelong federal by-election in 2017. And she had a prominent role as then party leader Bill Shorten’s “bus captain” during the May federal election campaign.
Murnain was Keneally’s strongest backer and vice versa. It has been suggested that Murnain signed her death warrant when she insisted that Keneally be elevated to the Senate last year over union boss Tony Sheldon.
That is why some in the faction see Albanese’s intervention into NSW Labor as factional game-playing. Labor’s Left faction has an 11-10 majority on the party’s all-powerful national executive, given that Albanese, as leader, has a casting vote. The national executive’s plenary powers give it the capacity to do almost anything it wants.
Clean break
When Nanva stood at the podium to accept the nomination to run the NSW Right faction on Monday night, he acknowledged that some felt “sad and empathetic” and others were “angry and disappointed”. He reminded them that their fundamental duty was to party members and supporters, and they needed to refocus on “serving them”. He promised to restore trust and provide “stable, effective, respected and quiet” leadership.
Many in the room thought it was a good speech. Nanva seemed to hit the right note. But his task ahead is immense. He has no experience running a faction, a party or a campaign. But, given the disastrous leadership in recent years, and the immense brand damage done to the party, he might just be the clean break that NSW Labor needs to return it to its glory days.