Anthony Albanese made similar play in NSW but Right prevailed

Anthony Albanese proposed a ­national takeover of the NSW division­ of the Labor Party but he was rolled by prominent figures in the state’s Right faction.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. Picture: AAP

Anthony Albanese proposed a ­national takeover of the NSW division­ of the Labor Party — simil­ar to what happened in ­Victoria this week — but he was rolled by prominent figures in the state’s Right faction.

The Opposition Leader was pushing for the NSW division to be put into administration last year after damning allegations unearthed in Independent Commission Against Corruption hearings.

Mr Albanese was calling for former Sydney Olympics minister Michael Knight to administer the branch while a review of its operations was undertaken.

While The Australian revealed last year that federal MPs Tony Burke and Kristina Keneally were calling for federal intervention, it has now been learned that Mr Albane­se was the leading figure in the push to install Mr Knight as ­interim administrator of the division. Key NSW Right figures including federal MPs Chris Bowen, Joel Fitzgibbon and Ed Husic opposed­ the idea and it was killed.

Mr Burke and Senator Keneally are also from the NSW Right but form a different bloc in the faction from the MPs who opposed Mr ­Albanese’s proposal. Mr Burke and Senator Keneally are among the closest allies of Mr Albanese, who is from the Left.

A compromise resulted in a ­review of the NSW branch led by former federal attorney-general Michael Lavarch, which was handed down in December.

Less than a year later, Mr Albanese and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews — also from the Left — got their way on a national takeover in Victoria, in a move that has infuriated some right-wing MPs.

The NSW reforms instigated after the Lavarch review included a new “state executive board’’ and an empowered president who will run the branch after being elected by a 75 per cent vote of state ­conference.

It also banned people who want to be general secretary from running for parliament for five years.

The recommendations come after general secretaries were ­implicated in the ICAC Chinese donations scandal in which a suspected agent of foreign influence, Huang Xiangmo, is alleged to have handed $100,000 in an Aldi bag to former general secretary Jamie Clements.

Mr Clements’s successor, Kaila Murnain, was accused in the hearings of knowing about the illegal donation and not reporting it.