Labor concern as ex-communist Grahame McCulloch gains key role, Left splits

The man appointed by Tasmania’s new Labor leader to help the party win back support ‘likes’ the views of Marxist thinkers.

Grahame McCulloch, recently appointed chief of staff to new Tasmanian Labor leader David O’Byrne. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

The man appointed by Tasmania’s new Labor leader to help the party win back lost support is a former communist who “likes” the views of a number of Marxist thinkers.

The appointment of former unionist Grahame McCulloch as chief of staff to the party’s new leader, David O’Byrne, has caused concern among some Labor members.

It comes as The Australian confirms a major split in Tasmanian Labor’s dominant Left faction, with the powerful “hard left” Health and Community Services Union (HACSU) leaving, effectively creating its own faction.

It is understood HACSU believed it had not had sufficient support from other key players in the Left locally or nationally over a series of internal battles.

Several Labor members said they believed Mr McCulloch was “too far left” to help win back voters lost to the Liberal Party and centrist independents, after three successive state election losses.

The Australian confirmed Mr McCulloch, best known as a former longstanding leader of the National Tertiary Education Union, was a member of the Communist Party of Australia in the early 1980s.

While now an ALP member and committed social democrat, Mr McCulloch as recently as 2009 listed a number of leading communist or Marxist thinkers as “people whose views I like”.

Mr McCulloch has also questioned Australia’s alliance with the US, telling the Canadian Association of University Teachers in December 2018: “For many Australians, the US alliance is an affront to our emerging independence. It distorts our economic and social priorities in the international arena, and is largely irrelevant to our place in Asia and particularly our close geographic and increasingly integrated economic relationship with China.”

Mr McCulloch declined to comment, but Mr O’Byrne said he had his “full confidence”.

“(Mr McCulloch) is a director of Unisuper – one of Australia’s largest superannuation funds with assets of over $100bn – and a member of its remuneration committee and audit, risk and compliance committee,” Mr O’Byrne said.

“He has a good knowledge of economic trends and a strong commitment to the role of private investment and businesses in generating economic growth, jobs and secure retirement incomes … (Any) suggestion that he is a Marxist extremist is laughable.”

However, some Labor members questioned whether Mr McCulloch would help grow Labor’s primary vote beyond the 28 per cent received at the May 1 state election.

“Get the centre back – by bringing in a (former) communist; what a great idea!” said one Labor member. Another said his appointment would “only divide the party further from its members, but more importantly (from) the public”.

Multiple sources confirmed Labor’s Left faction in Tasmania had split in recent days, with HACSU – the dominant force – effectively setting up its own faction.

Sources said the union would continue to exert power but it was unclear how much of the former Left – including state and federal MPs – would transfer to the HACSU faction or remain in the non-HACSU Left.

While the HACSU Left will remain powerful, the split raises the possibility of non-HACSU Left, Right and unaligned members combining more often to influence policy and positions.