By Pip Hunter
Following a fortnight of factional warfare in which more than 1000 people signed up to the Victorian Labor Party, its leader John "Cleanskin" Brumby said he will introduce a new rule governing what he euphemistically calls "multiple recruitment". This forms part of the deal Brumby stitched up with renegades from his own Labor Unity faction and the Socialist Left after surviving a surprise leadership challenge on May 2.
As the factional fiasco unravelled in Victoria, in NSW Labor factions were in the process of slugging it out in Peter Anderson's former seat of Liverpool. The former NSW police minister, who was installed in 1989 after a factional row between the right's Mark Latham and the left's Paul Lynch, has, despite head office intervention on his behalf, finally had to accept his preselection loss. This time Lynch won 139-130. Anderson has now joined the queue for a seat in the NSW upper house.
These factional battles in two conservative-run states where Labor's popularity is going from bad to worse have set off alarm bells among some senior members of the ALP. News reports from Victoria showing the mass recruitment of various ethnic communities — Greeks and Latin Americans to the left, Turks and Vietnamese to the right — prompted deputy prime minister Brian Howe to warn against the party "tearing itself apart". Labor's hopes of regaining office in Victoria (where Brumby trails Premier Jeff Kennett as preferred premier by 31%, according to a recent Saulwick Age poll), Howe said, would come to nothing if the ALP went back to the "rather sad old days when we faced bitter internal divisions".
The truth is that factional warfare has always been, and will probably continue to be, an integral part of the ALP. This is because its political life has more to do with individual career moves than with policy.
According to former ALP MLA Joan Coxsedge (who left the party 18 months ago) factional battles have "nothing at all to do with the needs of people or policy". She described the current battle in Victoria as "a sordid little excercise", and told Â鶹´«Ã½ that such events are very demoralising for people, "especially when there's so much to do in terms of developing alternative policies".
Conservative commentators, such as the Financial Review's Rowan Callick, make the same assessement. He says that since Labor gained power federally in 1983, the party's factional battles have become "less ideological, more tribal".
According to Frans Timmerman, an activist in the Victorian ALP left, the battle in Victoria finds its reflection in Canberra, where Socialist Left numbers man Senator Kim Carr is vying with Labor Unity numbers man Senator Robert Ray to shore up their respective power bases. Preselection battles between the Right and Left have begun in earnest as an electoral redistribution looms which is certain to reduce by one the number of federal parliamentary seats in Victoria. As well, a few sitting members are expected to retire at the next federal elections.
In the wake of former Premier Joan Kirner's departure in March 1993, Labor's right wing (the very disunited Labor Unity faction) has embarked on a bid to strengthen itself in Victoria, traditionally the base of the Socialist Left. The left meanwhile, has been busy trying to stitch up deals with both the small Independent faction and Â鶹´«Ã½ of Labor Unity.
Brumby has been Victorian opposition leader for just on 10 months, taking over in June 1993 from Jim Kennan, who lasted just four months in the job. Labor sources say it was no secret that former shadow treasurer Ian Baker wanted to become the leader. Baker, also from Labor Unity, has been a constant critic of Brumby, according to some sources even describing him as a "little Hitler".
Baker was also unhappy with the deal which led to the preselection of Brumby loyalist Stephen Bracks in Kirner's old seat of Williamstown. Bracks, a former leader of the Independent faction, agreed to join Labor Unity and pledged that the Independents would support Labor Unity candidates in all state and federal preselections until the year 2000 in return for his preselection.
This deal sparked the latest round of stacking. Baker was particularly incensed at Brumby's operation in the federal seat of Doutta Galla (160 members of the Turkish community were said to have been joined in one night), which covers Baker's electorate of Sunshine and former deputy leader Bob Sercombe's seat of Niddrie. With the support of Sercombe and some MPs from the Socialist Left, Baker decided to make a move on Brumby.
However, the numbers weren't there for Baker. As well, the Socialist Left had its own agenda. The resultant deal between the factions has ensured that Brumby stays as leader, the left's Demetri Dollis becomes his deputy, the former disgraced treasurer under Kirner, Tony Sheehan, moves to the front bench, and Baker goes to the back.
Timmerman told Â鶹´«Ã½ that the whole fiasco "was a big step backward by the party". Referring to the new leadership composition, he commented that factional wars never take smart politicians into account. "When the fight's on, nobody's spared."
Brumby has moved to clean up his tarnished image. He has sacked two of his senior staff members, admitting that they had been involved in branch stacking. He has also pledged to introduce a party rule which prevents more than 10 people being signed in as memebers at any one time.
An Age report on May 2 quoted Brumby admitting that stacking is a "perennial problem in the Labor Party" because "people become more concerned about party power plays than beating the other side at elections and winning power".
The ferocity of the blatant career-oriented factional battles has left many wondering if the Victorian ALP is serious about trying to win the state elections scheduled for 1996.
Former shadow treasurer Baker was quoted last year in the Age saying that the Labor Opposition did not disagree with the cuts the Kennett government was implementing — just the haste with which they were being done.
These comments seem to accord with sentiments expressed by Senator Ray at a recent Labor Unity meeting. According to Timmerman, Ray made it clear he believed it was preferable to have Kennett in power in Victoria. Why? "Because the hatred Kennett evokes translates into votes for Labor federally, and, after all, Kennett is implementing Keating's economic rationalist program to the letter."