Albanese takes over state ALP
Labor’s national executive takes control of the Victorian ALP, stripping 16,000 members of their right to select candidates until 2023.
Anthony Albanese and Labor’s national executive will take control of the Victorian ALP branch, setting up a factional showdown and stripping 16,000 party members of their right to select candidates until 2023.
The national takeover of the state Labor Party was devised following crisis talks between the federal Opposition Leader and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, sparked by allegations of widespread branch stacking by Right-faction powerbroker Adem Somyurek.
Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks and retired federal deputy leader Jenny Macklin were appointed as administrators of Labor’s Victorian division by the ALP national executive on Tuesday night, to oversee its operations until at least January.
The decision to stop rank-and-file voting for three years has outraged sections of the party’s right wing but is timed to cover the next state and federal elections. All sitting members were expected to have their preselections secured, reducing the opportunity for factional warlords to strike in the wake of Mr Somyurek’s sacking.
Under new rules endorsed by the national executive, based on a proposal put forward by Mr Andrews, all Victorian ALP memberships will be audited, with supporters likely to be forced to rejoin the party online to avoid direct cash payments.
Victorian Labor Right MPs warned the new rules could be hijacked by the Left faction — of which both Mr Albanese and Mr Andrews are senior members — to exert greater influence in the state. Right-wing powerbrokers made a last-minute push on Tuesday night to avoid a three-year freeze on Victorian preselection processes.
The extraordinary intervention will also give national executive members the power to choose Victoria’s delegates for Labor’s national conference in December, where Mr Albanese’s policy platform will be decided.
A senior Labor figure conceded the Victorian scandal could contribute to the Left holding more numbers than the Right at the ALP conference.
Right-wing powerbrokers will push for the national executive to endorse the same delegates who represented Victoria at the national conference ahead of last year’s election.
In a letter to ALP national secretary Paul Erickson, Mr Andrews said he had “no confidence in the integrity of any of the voting rolls that are produced for any internal elections in the Victorian branch”.
“Accordingly, we must suspend those elections and begin a long and critical process of validating each and every member of the Labor Party in Victoria as genuine, consenting and self-funded,” Mr Andrews wrote.
Victorian Labor figures suggested on Tuesday that as many as 4000 of 16,000 state members had been stacked by ALP powerbrokers in recent years.
Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin have been asked to hand down an “initial scoping report” by July 31, which will provide recommendations to the national executive on “integrity measures” for the Victorian branch membership. A final report will be completed by November.
A motion endorsed by the ALP national executive on Tuesday night said the final report would recommend how the Victorian branch should be “restructured and reconstituted” so that branch membership comprised “genuine, consenting, self-funding party members”. “For the term of the national executive oversight, officials and staff of the Victorian branch shall report to the administrators,” the motion said.
One Victorian Right MP declared that it was a “North and South Korea-type moment”, with the faction concerned Mr Albanese and Mr Andrews were using the allegations against Mr Somyurek to “smash up the Right”.
“The Left are trying to get revenge,” a federal MP said. “It will certainly increase the tension. One could describe it as a North and South Korea-type moment. What is the real motive here? What are they trying to achieve? And nobody knows the answer to that quite yet.”
Before the branch-stacking scandal, the ALP national executive had 10 Right and 10 Left members, with Mr Albanese allowed a casting vote. United Workers Union secretary Tim Kennedy is expected to join the national executive, sparking concerns that a Left-aligned union boss was replacing Mr Somyurek.
Mr Albanese, under pressure to hold on to the marginal seat of Eden-Monaro at the July 4 by-election, said Mr Andrews was “showing strong leadership”.
“Where we see inappropriate conduct, we act,” the Opposition Leader said. “We’ve seen restructuring of the NSW branch. We saw a restructuring of the Queensland branch after the Shepherdson inquiry. And both branches emerged stronger. And that is what we’ll see from Victoria.”
Following the Tuesday night meeting, ALP president Wayne Swan confirmed the national executive had endorsed the Victorian branch reforms. “The conduct exposed in recent days is reprehensible and at odds with everything the ALP stands for.”
Victorian Right MPs claimed branch-stacking of the Left would also be exposed through the process. Federal Labor sources said Mr Somyurek would continue to wield influence in the Right faction. “He will be around for sure, even if he is not a member, and he will cause a lot of headaches for people,” a federal Labor MP said.
“Things are going to get worse before they get better.”
The Australian understands Mr Andrews will make further announcements on Wednesday regarding party reforms. Members are expected to be required to join a local branch rather than through party headquarters in Melbourne. Mr Bracks, from the Right, and Ms Macklin, from the Left, are both respected party elders and noted for their conciliatory approach to politics.
There has been speculation Victorian ALP secretary Clare Burns could have been dumped from the job, amid criticism she was too close to Mr Somyurek.
Despite a long history of NSW Labor scandals, ALP sources on Tuesday attempted to talk down widening the Victorian takeover to other state divisions, due to no evidence of similar wide-scale branch stacking.
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