Premier Daniel Andrews says his order for a full review of the Victorian ALP in light of revelations over branch stacking will return power to the true believers. Michael Fowler and Rob Harris report that:
On Tuesday the Labor Party’s national executive unanimously approved Mr Andrews’ request to conduct a wide-ranging review into branch stacking, suspend all state and federal preselections for the next three years and suspend the voting rights of every member.
As many as 4000 of 16,000 state members had been stacked by ALP power-brokers from both factions in recent years.
Mr Andrews said he had ‘no confidence in the integrity’ of ‘any voting rolls’ for internal elections within the Victorian branch.
The national executive asked Steve Bracks and Jenny Macklin to provide an initial report into the party’s membership by the end of July, and work with the current state secretary and the Victorian branch president to develop integrity measures, with final report \expected by 1 November 2020 including recommendations on how the branch should be restructured and reconstituted and return power to the true believers.
Somyurek was sacked from the ministry on Monday morning (15 June 2020), after revelations of his branch-stacking activities were aired, with his close factional ally Robin Scott resigning later that day. Marlene Kairouz, the Gambling and Liquor Licensing Minister, then became the third frontbench casualty.
Daniel Andrews has requested an anti-corruption commission and Victoria Police investigation into the matters.
Read
Labor Party review will return power to true believers by Michael Fowler, The Age, 17 June 2020 [External link]
Daniel Andrews asked federal Labor to take over Victorian preselections – by Rob Harris, The Age, 16 June 2020 [External link]
Related readings
Industrial scale branch stacking – Fed Exec. intervenes into VIC ALP 2020
Labor in turmoil as it plans a branch-stacking allegation response – by Jane Norman & Stephen Dziedzic, The Age 16 June 2020
The ALP must repair trust between leadership & members – by James Button October 2020
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