Faction friction a problem for PM

WHEN a politician reaches the summit of their ambition and seizes the prime ministership, they are inevitably driven to make their mark in the history books.

One measure of success is how long they are able to stay there, as very few give up the power and prestige of the office voluntarily.

Julia Gillard is no exception. She is edging closer to a date that will secure her an appointment with history. Circle the date Monday January 14, 2013 in bold red ink on the calendar. On that day, less than a month away, Gillard will have served longer as prime minister than her predecessor, Kevin Rudd.

But only three weeks ago, Gillard's quest for prime ministerial longevity was nearly cut short, when the cabinet and caucus were arrayed against her position to oppose Palestine's bid to upgrade its status at the UN.

The impact of this vigorous behind-the-scenes debate continues to echo through Labor ranks. If Gillard had persisted, against the overwhelming opposition of her cabinet and caucus colleagues, she may have placed her prime ministership at risk.

Those events intensified the division between the Labor Right factions in NSW and Victoria, two of the largest groupings within the government.

With Labor expected to lose up to 10 seats in NSW at the next election, according to public and internal party polling, the Victorian Right is already privately blaming its NSW colleagues for losing the next election.

Minutes before caucus met on the morning of November 27, Foreign Minister Bob Carr eyeballed Gillard in her office and urged her to back down on her insistence Australia vote against the motion on Palestine at the UN or she would face a humiliating defeat.

In cabinet the night before, Gillard faced a relentless stream of opposition from Carr and ministers Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke, Craig Emerson, Simon Crean, Martin Ferguson, Chris Bowen, Greg Combet and Peter Garrett. She was unmoved.

After cabinet, a clutch of ministers and backbenchers hit the phones and met to discuss strategy as word of the extraordinary cabinet meeting reverberated around Parliament House. Gillard continued to consult others. A backbench revolt was brewing.

At the height of the drama, Gillard and her supporters in the Victorian Right repeatedly made an unprecedented request to the NSW Labor Right convenor, Joel Fitzgibbon, to bind the entire national Right faction behind her position. They were rebuffed.

Gillard even considered binding all ministers and parliamentary secretaries, 42 caucus members out of a total of 102, to her position before the caucus meeting, to arm her with a strong phalanx of support in any heated caucus battle.

The Victorian Labor Right MP Michael Danby was road-testing his post-election lines last week when he criticised Carr for "ringing around trying to get the numbers" to roll Gillard.

He said the NSW Right was producing "a debilitating quality" of state MPs and blasted the "corruption at the heart of both the Left and Right of NSW Labor".

What Danby doesn't understand is that it was the efforts of several ministers across many factions and several states, not just the NSW Right, that effectively saved Gillard's leadership from imploding.

Only Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy, from the Victorian Right, offered support for Gillard's position in cabinet.

At its core this was a policy debate between the two key sections of the Right. It was not, as some reports suggested, purely about saving Labor seats in western Sydney where Muslims and Christians are becoming more prominent.

Israel's aggressive settlement policy, increasing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and the belief that upgrading Palestine's status will advance the peace cause, were among the key reasons.

They also represent the views of the international community, which voted overwhelmingly to support the Palestine motion at the UN. Former prime minister Bob Hawke, past foreign minister Gareth Evans and retired diplomat Richard Woolcott also supported Palestine's bid.

Gillard's stubbornness, which pushed her leadership to the political precipice, has left many of her colleagues baffled. If Gillard had followed Danby's advice, she would have faced defeat in caucus and Rudd's supporters would have seen an opening for a leadership challenge.

Danby is correct, however, to highlight the unseemly parade of allegedly corrupt figures tied to the former NSW Labor government being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption who have damaged federal Labor in Sydney.

The Victorians are using it to discredit their intra-factional enemies. The Victorians deride NSW Labor, weakened by a big state election defeat, for continuing to produce MPs of diminishing quality.

NSW scorns Victorian Labor as a troglodyte on party reform, failing to understand mortgage belt, outer-suburban Sydney, where most marginal seats are, and for the government's terrible standing in the polls.

Another aspect of the division is noticeable in that most of the Victorian Right is locked behind Gillard's leadership while a large slice of the NSW Right would support Rudd.

The frosty relationship is also being felt in campaign planning. The party's campaign war room will be headquartered in Melbourne. The campaign director, his deputies and senior campaign officials are not from NSW. Gillard's chief and deputy chief of staff are Victorians. NSW Labor is in the freezer.

Party reform is another dividing line. In NSW, the Right and the Left are working closely on internal reforms to open up policymaking and reform candidate selection and to pioneer new recruitment and organising strategies. There is little appetite for reform in Victoria.

Recent membership figures show that Victoria is the only state branch to be shrinking, while NSW is now the fastest-growing branch.

As the political year draws to a close, this factional friction only weakens and undermines Gillard's leadership, even as she surpasses Rudd to become Australia's 16th longest serving prime minister next month.