Trainwreck on the right, but just look to this left

Labor has emerged triumphant from the Liberal leadership wars. It can boast a record of party unity while in opposition. It is reaping the benefits of public frustration with revolving-door prime ministers. But while our gaze was averted, the green Left went rogue.

Labor is weakening its commitment to border security. It is gunning for big-debt policies in immigration and energy while promoting GetUp-style identity politics. The Right flank is digging hard to bury news that its union mates were found guilty of corruption — again.

If you think the Liberal Party is a train wreck, look Left.

With our eyes firmly fixed on the Liberal leadership pile-up, Labor has enjoyed an extended honeymoon away from the media spotlight. The public has developed a taste for political drama and the media provides the fare.

There has been no shortage of intrigue in Canberra as politicians try to adapt to the 24-hour news cycle and runaway social media; the pressure of populism (Left and Right); a deepening democratic deficit; the corrupting influence of unelected bureaucrats and party donors; and the rise of tribalism in the place of universal democracy.

Amid the chaos of 21st-century politics, the absence of a foundational ideology leaves the Liberal Party especially vulnerable to external shocks. When external events threaten Labor, it seeks stability in old alliances and ideology, no matter how problematic.

The Labor-affiliated Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union is one such alliance. Unions appoint half the delegates to Labor’s state conferences. Many frontbenchers were once union ­officials. The unions serve as a major source of Labor funding, personnel and political power. Recently they have formed deeper alliances with non-government organisations that campaign against Liberal MPs while proclaiming political neutrality.

The CFMEU has donated $1.1 million to GetUp, which in turn works to remove Liberal conservatives from parliament. It claimed to have spent about $700,000 on advertising in the 2016 election campaign and targeted Liberals who backed sitting prime minister Tony Abbott in the 2015 leadership spill. It scalped conservative MP Andrew Nikolic in Tasmania and has joined Labor in targeting Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in the lead-up to next year’s election.

Questions remain over Labor leader Bill Shorten’s relationship with GetUp and union donations to the group. The Registered Organisations Commission is investigating whether large donations from the Australian Workers Union to GetUp and Labor campaigns were properly authorised. Shorten led the AWU at the time the donations were made.

There are fewer questions over Labor’s refusal to sever ties with law-breaking unions. The CFMEU has donated more than $8m to Labor in a decade. Last month, the CFMEU was charged $577,000 in penalties for breaching the Fair Work Act repeatedly. As The ­Australian’s Ewin Hannan reported, Federal Court judge Richard Tracey described the CFMEU’s behaviour as “anathema in a democratic society”. Fines against the CFMEU total $15.6m, according to Liberal MP Craig Laundy. But Labor, the party of megaphone virtue, has nothing to say when its fair work union is fined more than $500,000 for breaching the Fair Work Act.

In a speech last year to protesters, Victorian state secretary of the CFMEU John Setka said: “Let me give a dire warning to them ABCC (Australian Building and Construction Commission) inspectors, be careful what you do.” His comments were taken as a threat to public servants and, following bipartisan criticism, he offered a qualified apology that included an emotional appeal: “As a family man and father of three beautiful children, if my comments were taken out of context or if they came across in a manner that was threatening, then I truly apologise.” Yesterday, Setka tweeted a Father’s Day message to the ABCC with two young children holding up a sign that read: “Go Get Fu#ked.”

Liberals are right to attack Labor’s record of defending gross corruption in the union industry and protecting union boss profits over workers’ rights. Labor luminaries have called for reforms to improve union governance. As Abbott recounted in these pages, former AWU national secretary Ian Cambridge was convinced a royal commission into union gov­ernance was needed and sought to establish one. Former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke has called for the ALP to sever ties with the CFMEU. But modern Labor does not seem interested. It has more important things to deal with than systemic corruption and criminal associates; things such as identity politics and scare campaigns.

Days after Scott Morrison became Prime Minister, Labor was whipping up hysteria with a rainbow flag.

Opposition assistant spokeswoman for equality Louise Pratt got the “fears for queers” cam­paign going. OUTinPerth reported Pratt’s concern that Morrison had honoured the Coalition’s election promise to give the Australian people a vote on marriage reform. She says the postal plebiscite was “a way of obstructing our path to marriage equality”, despite the vote for marriage reform. Pratt too is upset that a Liberal PM supports freedom of religion and speech. One may lament that Labor, by extension, does not. The ALP’s commitment to diversity of belief will be put to the test after Attorney-General Christian Porter responds to the Ruddock review of religious freedom.

To cap off a month of rank corruption in Labor union ranks, the party’s Left is reviving the zombie ideology of identity politics. At last weekend’s Queensland Labor conference, the Left proposed ­dividing party membership along tribal lines. AAP reported the plan to offer membership of groups such as Labor Women or Rainbow Labor without joining a local branch. How offensive; why must the sisterhood choose between Labor Women or Rainbow Labor? Hasn’t the patriarchy heard of intersectionality?

Labor enjoyed a long honeymoon in opposition while the Liberals tore themselves apart. With the leadership question ­finally settled, the honeymoon is over.