Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said Victorian Labor has a significant problem following the branch stacking allegations aired on Sixty Minutes 14 June 2020. Andrews outlined a plan to reform the party following the branch-stacking scandal that has prompted the departure of three of his ministers.
[Watch Premier Dan Andrews and Steve Bracks comments on line.]
In a press conference this morning, Premier Andrews said the problems within the party were “unacceptable to me, unacceptable to all decent, hard-working rank-and-file members of our party and affiliate trade unions”.
Dan Andrews also apologised to the “true believers” of his party and said their voice would be heard “louder than it has ever been” after the reforms.
Premier Daniel Andrews proposed the intervention, writing to the ALP National Executive 16 June 2020: “I have no confidence in the integrity of any voting rolls that are produced for any internal elections in the Victorian Branch.”
Daniel Andrews said rather than dwelling on failed party reviews from the past on the issue of branch stacking, he would “get this done”.
“It is simply unacceptable to me to have another review that gathers dust on a shelf and doesn’t deal with these issues.”
Andrews said the two-and-a-half-year delay before members could vote was because “you have got to break the business model of those who would seek to undermine the integrity of our systems”.
“All staff, regardless of who they work for, it is my expectation that they behave appropriately at all times,”.
The federal division of the ALP has appointed two Victorians as administrators until early next year — former premier Steve Bracks and former deputy federal leader Jenny Macklin.
On being questioned about his independence, Steve Bracks said he was not a member of any faction and his only concern was “the health and wellbeing of the Australian Labor Party going forward”.
Steve Bracks said “It is a unique opportunity really because what we’ll have coming out of this is a better structure, one which is going to be fit for purpose for the future and one which will mean that we can get floods of people joining the party again, because they’ll know that they can get a say in what happens, a meaningful say, a genuine say.”
Labor has a significant problem, a cultural issue which we need to change
“I don’t think you’ll ever be able to, in any political party anywhere in the world, abolish groups of like-minded people who want to [get together for] mutual support because they have certain beliefs, certain attitudes. That’s very healthy. What’s not healthy is the pursuit of power when anything goes, and I think there’s a cultural issue here which we need to change.”
Related readings
Operation Watts IBAC enquiry into branch stacking practices – by Open Labor, 19 Oct 2021
Daniel Andrews has weathered COVID storms so far, but the test of IBAC lies ahead – by Richard Willingham, ABC News, 8 Oct 2021
Victorian Labor has a ‘significant problem’, Premier Daniel Andrews says following branch-stacking scandal – ABC News, 17 Jun 2020
The Faceless Man – Sixty Minutes on Victorian ALP branch stacking [in 4 parts] – 15 June 2020
‘Industrial scale branch stacking’ – Fed Exec. intervenes into VIC ALP 2020 – by Open Labor 15 June 2020
Labor in turmoil as it plans a branch-stacking allegation response – by Jane Norman & Stephen Dziedzic, The Age, 16 June 2020
ALP power vacuum – can the Labor Party really clean up its factional mess? – by Sumeyya Ilanbey, The Age, 19 June 2020
A review of all the ALP reviews – 50 years of soul searching – by David Barda
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