OK so lets be more local. Is there a hidden agenda with this "handful of factional powerbrokers"? Are they directing policy by influence from others outside of politics? Is money exchanging hands? Is there a common denominator of similar examples operating within the Liberal Party? Sure it’s easy to vote for a glossy brochure (Party) but these days in politics who is it actually pulling the strings from behind the scenes? Did we vote for them?
O'Connor to run Indep Updated: 05:58, Friday October 19, 2007 Mr O'Connor lost pre-selection to a senior union official and he didn't mince words when asked why he was switching sides.
He blamed, 'Rampant branch-stacking, rorting of the democratic processes, illicit fundraising, money laundering, and grubby back-room political deals by Labor right-wing factional operatives.'
Public Lecture by Mark Latham at the University of Melbourne, 27 September 2005
Number Four: The Rise of Machine Politics This is the unhappy story of Labor’s culture over the past twenty years.
As Labor’s real membership declined, it was relatively easy for a handful of factional powerbrokers to grab hold of the Party in the 1980s. They had the resources of head office and the trade unions to back them and met little resistance from the so-called rank-and-file membership (which had been gutted by ethnic branch stacking). This was a takeover hostile to democratic principles: they stripped the remaining assets of the Party, turning ALP conferences and policy committees into hand-picked, stage-managed jokes.
