Wipeout for Rudd faction

THE once-powerful “Old Guard” faction of Kevin Rudd and Peter Beattie has been wiped out.

THE once-powerful “Old Guard” faction of Kevin Rudd and Peter Beattie has been wiped out amid infighting and a series of backroom deals by internal Labor rivals over looming state preselections.

Former factional president and union boss Dave Hanna yesterday confirmed the Old Guard — the small, centre-right faction — was finished and had no significant union support after decades of holding the balance of power in Queensland Labor.

“It’s dead as we know it, we are now waiting for the wake,” he told The Australian.

Key supporters of Mr Rudd during his removal and return as prime minister are among the expected casualties of the demise of the faction, which gained its power through lending support to the larger Left and Australian Workers United-dominated Right on internal ballots.

Queensland senator Mark Furner — who lost his seat and vacates the upper house in July, after being pushed down the Senate ticket before last year’s federal election — is among the expected casualties.

ALP sources said the AWU and Left had done a deal to thwart his preselection candidacy for the state seat of Pine Rivers.

Senator Furner, who was appointed president of the Old Guard in the past few weeks, said he believed the faction — more formally known as Labor Unity — could still survive. “The faction has dwindled, but we are trying to put it back on track and ensure its survival,” he said.

For two decades, the faction has been able to secure a third of the state seats in caucus.

But after Labor holds 46 state preselections in the next few months, on top of the 11 contested last year, it is expected the faction will be represented in only two electorates — those held by Deputy Opposition Leader Tim Mulherin and fellow MP Bill Byrne.

Mr Hanna said infighting in the Old Guard had also been exploited by the AWU.

“The demise of the faction comes down to the ‘ex-MPs club’ in the faction trying to get their way and undermining the executive in the group,” he said.

“The unions have abandoned the group. It is a tragedy for Labor, because this is the moderate group in the party that sits in between the extremes of the Left and the Right.”

The preselections are now expected to resurrect the careers of former MPs, ousted in the 2012 wipeout of the Bligh government.

Former ministers Cameron Dick and Stirling Hinchliffe are among candidates for the preselection contests, with the frontrunners dominated by former MPs, union officials and political advisers.