Labor factional gang that couldn’t shoot straight

Bill Shorten and Anthony Albanese during Question. Picture: AAP

Victorian Labor has entered its most volatile period internally for decades in what the Right fears is essentially a power grab from the Left and disaffected former factional allies.

Anthony Albanese and Daniel Andrews, both from the Left, are billing the fallout from the branch-stacking scandal as a necessary response to sweeping internal dysfunction.

But the reality is that the scandal has afforded the Left in Victoria and nationally the opportunity to profit from a hit by the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes on the leader of the Victorian Right.

The scandal leaves the Victorian Right in its most vulnerable position for decades. It leaves rank-and-file members unable to participate in internal votes for years and the Victorian Premier with the potential to further dominate the party.

While Albanese intends to profit from the dysfunction in Victoria, the federal Opposition Leader in fact faces years of instability and potential undermining from within.

This is the contradiction of what has happened. To profit from the Right’s misery, Albanese will have to deal with the seething anger.

There is a genuine sense of horror within large sections of the ALP with the manner in which this hit was executed.

Federal Labor backbencher Anthony Byrne has never been a high flyer and will leave politics having been accused of triggering the most unlikely scandal. Byrne has not articulated what, if any, role he had in allowing the 60 Minutes cameras into his office. But he will be held accountable internally regardless.

His enemies, and they are growing in number, are blaming him for a prime-time fiasco that was many months in the making.

Byrne should be allowed to have his say so we can say definitively whether he is the man to blame.

But common sense says he must take responsibility as the sitting MP for what happened in his own office.

The expose on alleged branch stacking by Adem Somyurek has rocked Labor as much because of the way it was executed as for the details that followed.

Opinion is divided about what charges, if any, Somyurek could face with the majority view that, if anything, he is probably facing parking tickets rather than a stint on Robben Island.

It is worth repeating that Somyurek’s language in the 60 Minutes episode was poor and unacceptable. But the internal implications go way beyond loose language and the branch-stacking allegations.

The failure of Albanese to punish Byrne in any way shows the extent to which Labor nationally is drowning in its own contradictions.

While Albanese is happy to blast Somyurek, he has let Byrne off with less than a slap even though the text messages Byrne sent to Somyurek expose a bitter man who has unloaded on umpteen colleagues, with women particular targets.

Albanese’s critics argue that he is desperate to smash the Victorian Right and further undermine his predecessor, Bill Shorten, the idea being that national intervention will limit the Victorian branch’s ability to contribute to votes.

That would seriously undermine Shorten’s influence — potentially, some people believe, even blocking Shorten from another run at the leadership. At the same time, it opens the way for a realignment of power in the Victorian branch, potentially heralding the return to influence of former Right powerbroker Stephen Conroy and Left numbers man Kim Carr.

But before this happens, Somyurek’s coalition of the Right and Left industrial unions must completely disappear into the night. This is not necessarily going to happen, although a realignment of sorts seems inevitable. The Right is already canvassing for people to assume control of any future alliance.

There will be pressure on Shorten to play a key backroom role in whatever happens, with a deep concern that the faction has lost its philosophical muscle.

In short, it needs to rediscover what it stands for.

The general view is that the Victorian ALP always functions best when the Right is strong.

This week it was blown up by friendly fire.