We soon realise how bad the Labor party is when headlines like this start appearing.
Haha yes bring him back, it will ensure another whitewash of that pathetic party at the next election.
Bill Shorten a winner if he plays his cards right
BRAD NORINGTONFollow @BradNorington
Leader of the Opposition Anthony Albanese and former leader of the opposition Bill Shorten in Canberra.
The “hideously embarrassing” forced ousting of Victorian Labor minister and notorious numbers man
Adem Somyurek has suddenly thrown open the prospect of party winners and losers.
It is also expected to trigger months of factional warring that could accelerate a shift in control of the federal party to the ALP Left.
Anthony Albanese risks being a loser — despite the Labor leader insisting on Monday that Somyurek had “no influence” on the federal party — because upheaval ahead could harden attitudes among those in the Victorian Left who already resent him and dismiss him as a temporary fixture from NSW who survives as a Left moderate with Right support.
Bill Shorten, reportedly interested in a leadership comeback one day, could be a winner but it depends on how he navigates key relationships and the numbers from here on.
Influential Labor figures on both sides of Labor’s ruling national executive were quick to “celebrate” Somyurek’s lifetime party ban following taped admissions of industrial-style branch stacking and highly offensive language directed at female colleagues.
They said fragile alliances that had helped keep the party united not only in Victoria but also federally were now in jeopardy, with the Right possibly losing numbers to the Left on the floor of the party’s national conference scheduled for late this year.
With the conference determining policy and the make-up of 21 votes on the ALP’s ruling national executive, the current 10-10 split with Albanese having a casting vote could move more decisively the Left’s way.
Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese (right) speaks to former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten speak during Question Time in February.
Several ALP figures on the party’s national executive said they regarded the exit of Somyurek — who controlled a balance of party power in Victoria with his numbers on the Right in a fragile alliance with the union-dominated hard “industrial left” and other Right forces loyal to Shorten — as a catalyst for change.
“He can no longer offer a network of patronage,” one said.
Labor Left leaders consider upheaval over Somyurek as an opportunity to reshape Labor’s direction by supporting more intervention in the economy and local manufacturing.
Such an outcome would boost the old guard Socialist Left led by senator Kim Carr, but could even lead to an unlikely meeting of minds with CFMEU types who no longer see eye-to-eye with him.
The party Right, meanwhile, is holding on to the hope the Victorian “industrial left” will split if some of its members do everything possible to dissociate from Somyurek. The Right would then have a better chance of maintaining a voting quota of 47 per cent at the national conference to safeguard its power status quo. Winners here would be Victorians Richard Marles and Mark Dreyfus, and in NSW Chris Bowen and Tony Burke.
Winner: Deputy Leader of the Opposition Richard Marles.
Winner: Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
Until his ousting, Somyurek was the key to a factional power deal with the union-dominated hard “industrial left” and Shorten’s other Right group. That alliance led to the dramatic end to a “stability agreement” under which Senator Carr from the Left and now former senator Stephen Conroy from the Right had kept the peace and tried to put Labor on an election-winning footing.
All 12 unions from the Victorian ALP’s “industrial left” group — led by the CFMEU boss John Setka despite his own recent forced exit from the party, and Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Luba Grigorovitch — agreed in an urgent phone hook-up on Monday to stay united and meet next week to discuss the implications of Somyurek’s implosion.
Several ALP national executive figures say it could be difficult for this group to stick together because of the “odour” of a continued association with Somyurek.
Still others say Somyurek’s forced ousting might not prevent him having lasting party influence, either as a disrupter or in maintaining control of some federal MP preselections, given his personal loyalties and record of brutal branch control. On the taped material aired on Nine’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Somyurek was heard to say he effectively controlled the futures of Victorian-based federal MPs Rob Mitchell, Joanne Ryan, Tim Watts, Anthony Byrne and Julian Hill.
“He can have real influence because of his numbers on the ground,” one national executive member said. “He can still be a force to be reckoned with. He could create havoc.”
