Bill Shorten faces ALP factions showdown

Bill Shorten will start the Parliamentary year with his frontbench pitted against each other and the threat of four by-elections.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Brendan Radke

Bill Shorten is facing escalating factional hostilities with senior frontbenchers now pitted against each other over the party’s national presidency, and the looming threat of four by-elections this year ­following the resignation of key ally David Feeney.

Ahead of parliament resuming next week, the Opposition Leader has been tested by a worsening factional row and an impending battle with the Greens and environmental activists to retain Mr Feeney’s Melbourne seat of ­Batman.

Mr Shorten also faces a showdown at the ALP national conference in July, with his own right faction moving to block Labor frontbencher Mark Butler from seeking another term as national president, following an incendiary speech he delivered on internal ­reform, which many believe was targeted at Mr Shorten.

Amid factional squabbling between the right and left in Victoria, Labor’s senior vice-president, Tim Hammond, has proposed a rule change banning frontbenchers from contesting the party’s presidency ahead of a clash at national conference in July.

Mr Hammond, a leading member of the right, told The Australian that holding dual roles put the parliamentary party in conflict with the party organisation.

Leading left-wing figures, led by Mr Shorten’s long-time leadership rival Anthony Albanese, yesterday backed Mr Butler’s pushback against factional hostilities inside Labor. Mr Albanese endorsed Mr Butler’s call to empower Labor’s “rank-and-file members”.

“He is certainly correct to say that we need to give rank-and-file members more power and more influence and more say in a range of decisions,” Mr Albanese said. “I’d support, for example, rank-and-file members getting a direct say in the choice about our Senate candidates and other candidates. I’ve campaigned for it. One of the things that has to happen is that political parties are about power and people who have that power are reluctant to give it up.”

Transport Workers Union nat­ional secretary Tony Sheldon, who has flagged his intention to run for president, backed Mr Hammond’s proposal and ­attacked Mr Butler for “navel ­gazing” about party reform.

Mr Sheldon said frontbench MPs should be barred from the top organisational role.

Despite Labor leading in Newspoll, internal ructions threaten to derail Mr Shorten’s political agenda this year. Victorian Labor MP Andrew Giles, a prominent left faction member, yesterday ­attacked the party for turning its back on socially progressive ideals and Gough Whitlam’s legacy.

Mr Shorten — under pressure from colleagues over his handling of Labor’s response to the citizenship scandal after claiming that “there is no cloud over any of our people” — also faces the growing threat of more by-elections, with the government preparing to target him in parliament next week.

Queensland Labor MP Susan Lamb, who holds the seat of Longman by 0.8 per cent, was yesterday singled out by the Leader of the House, Christopher Pyne, who said she was “very clearly still a UK citizen”. Labor insiders expect the party will lose the Batman by-election to the Greens.

ACT Labor senator Katy Gallagher could also fall foul of section 44 of the Constitution despite Mr Shorten’s repeated assurance that Labor’s “extremely stringent vetting process” meant none of his MPs were dual citizens. There are further concerns about the citizenship status of two Labor MPs, Tasmanian Justine Keay and West Australian Josh Wilson.

Amid the spectre of more Labor MPs being referred to the High Court or being forced to resign from parliament, Mr Butler said last week Labor remained in the grip of “factional warlords”, its membership was shrinking, it was unable to mount mass campaigns outside of general elections and the party’s primary vote was “stubbornly low”.

The senior South Australian MP suggested Labor had performed better under leaders Kim Beazley and Mark Latham. Labor MPs, union leaders and officials are privately fuming about the speech.

Mr Albanese, whose campaign for leader in 2013 was run by Mr Butler, has launched a media blitz this week following his proposal to hold dual referendums on the republic and indigenous recognition on Australia Day, rebuking Mr Shorten’s policy position.

Having fended off an aggressive Greens campaign against him in the Sydney seat of Grayndler at the 2016 federal election, Mr Albanese yesterday attacked the minor party, accusing it of concocting “issues according to their own priorities, and often without looking at the consequences”.

He said Labor remained a “more democratic party than the Greens”.

Mr Hammond told The Australian he would move his motion to restrict eligibility for presidential candidates at the national conference, but he may seek to have the national executive impose the rule ahead of the ballot for president in May-June, which would prohibit Mr Butler from nominating. Mr Shorten opposed Mr Butler’s bid for president in 2015.

“In order to promote accountability and transparency within the party, our national president, being duly elected by the lay party membership, should serve to provide a check and balance on the parliamentary wing of the party,” Mr Hammond said.

The intervention of Mr Hammond and Mr Sheldon, which has the backing of national right leaders, places Labor’s factions in open warfare.

Mr Hammond was the right faction’s candidate for president in 2015. As he polled second, he became senior vice-president. He was elected to parliament as the MP for Perth in 2016 and joined the frontbench that year. Mr Hammond confirmed he would not run for president.

Mr Sheldon is seeking the backing of the national right faction for a presidential bid.

“We should be focused on policy to win the next election, not internal navel-gazing about party reform,” he said. “It is of no interest to voters whose support we need to win the next election. They want us to focus on the growing inequality gap in our economy. Mark should be congratulated for doing good work as a frontbencher over the past few years, but it just shows he has not been able to focus on being president.”