Broadside: leadership contender swings ALP ‘school bus bullies’

Tasmanian Labor faces a bruising leadership stoush, amid a call to reclaim it from the dominant ‘hard left powerbrokers’.

Shane Broad, Labor member for Braddon, is contesting the Labor leadership to stand up to ‘school bus bullies’ on the hard left. Picture: Rob Burnett

Tasmanian Labor faces a bruising leadership stoush, with unaligned MP Shane Broad issuing a “rallying cry” to “moderates” to reclaim the party from its dominant “hard left powerbrokers”.

Dr Broad, who likened key Left faction powerbrokers to school bus bullies, will contest a ballot of the party’s conference and broader membership against left-backed David O’Byrne. 

As forecast in The Australian, Dr Broad on Monday pitched himself as a reformer, backing ALP national executive intervention in the party’s state branch to restore “balance”.

“There is a growing frustration among what I would call the moderate voices in the Labor Party,” Dr Broad told local radio, blaming hard-left powerbrokers for the party’s third consecutive election defeat on May 1.

“If the Labor Party tried to win every single independent and Green vote, we will would not form government. That is not a pathway to government. That is not a pathway to making the changes Labor wants. The only way to do that is to win votes off the Liberals. And the only way to win votes off the Liberals is from the centre of the political spectrum. That’s why I’m putting my hat into the ring.”

Dr Broad, an agricultural scientist backed by the Right faction, some unaligned figures and some in the disenchanted Left, predicted he would suffer calls for his disendorsement.

He upped the internal tensions, calling for the removal of the Left’s Ben McGregor as party president, saying the dumped candidate’s election campaign threat to sue then-leader Rebecca White for defamation made his position untenable.

Ms White stood down as Labor’s state leader after the May 1 election loss, as part of a deal to secure ALP national executive involvement in a review of the party’s rules and procedures.

Dr Broad, from the electorate of Braddon, said: “I learnt a very valuable lesson a long time on a school bus; the only way to stand up to bullies is to start swinging. You might cop a few hits but the bullies will think twice next time.”