Weeding the stacks was never going to be easy

On 8 October 2020 the Age reported some ALP branch raw numbers (not percentages) of members who had not renewed their membership.    Eric Dearricott writes:

Criteria for inclusion in this Age list wasn’t clear – it could have been 50+ non-renewals, but some with more than 50 non-renewals had been left out, and of course 50 out of a branch of more than 300 is not very significant whereas 50 out of 60–70 is definitely significant.In eight out of the state’s 200 branches 70% or more of their members didn’t renew. These were mostly people whose membership had normally been renewed with cash in bulk lots taken to State Office.

Mandating traceable means for membership payments has had some effect, however, in many cases branches known to be the homes of stacks, had median or even low non-renewal rates. 

It is imperative that the DeLoitte audit finds and ensures those stacks are taken off our rolls – otherwise all this pain will have been for little gain.

The task of weeding out the stacks was never going to be easy and the complexity added by the COVID–19 restrictions has made the task all the more difficult.

There are eight or nine FEAs where almost every branch needs to be fully audited and a few more where one or two branches also need also to be audited.

One of these FEAs, despite their huge number of book members, couldn’t even staff their own booths at the 2019 Federal election. 

This Age article claimed that crashing membership numbers in Moderates faction branches controlled by Mr Somyurek:  Springvale branch went from 95 to 5, Casey Central branch from 111 to 41 and Endeavour Hills branch from 112 to 56. The Turkish-dominated Coolaroo branch lost 110 members, Parkmore branch 74 members, and both Thomastown West and Heidelberg lost more than 55. 
Socialist Left branches also had big losses with Italian-dominated Lalor South losing 115, Greek dominated Batman North dropping 84 to 12 and Deer Park 150 to around 60.  
Party members paying their membership online by traceable means has increased from 67% to 87%. 
Victoria-wide 3500 members did not renew before the September renewal cut-off .