Reclaim Our Party – requests to ALP National Executive

The recent Reclaim Our Party forum called by the Independents and Open Labor calls on the ALP National Executive to undertake urgent actions in response to the IBAC inquiry into the activities of Adem Somyurek and the “Moderate” faction.

Jenny Beacham, former Victorian ALP State Secretary gave a keynote address on to over 130 Victorian Labor members, non-aligned and factional, 1 December 2021. Jenny reported that only one MP named at IBAC had left the party: “Will the others seek preselection as if nothing has changed?” she said.

Jenny searched through the records of the eleven days of public hearings at IBAC and created a spreadsheet of listing the people and branches named. “79 people are named, some many times. Of 56 checked, 44 are still ALP members”.

She concluded her address by saying “What is the ALP going to do – we need to ask the Party Monitor or start charging people who remain in the ALP in clear breach of the rules”.

ALP National Executive Members are asked:

NOT to preselect MPs connected with the branch stacking scandal

Over the weekend Open Labor Convenor James Button and myself sent a joint email calling on National Executive members who will carry out the state preselections because the voting rights of Victorian Party members have been withdrawn. We told Executive members that if  current Parliamentarians clearly implicated in the branch stacking and breaches of Victorian ALP rules as exposed at IBAC renominate, the National Executive must not preselect them.

The ALP’s rules will stand for nothing if candidates who have contravened the rules and brought about the loss of other members rights are selected as Labor candidates in the next state election we told the National Executive

NOT to parachute in candidates over high quality local candidates

It is already clear that in this round of preselections, National Executive members will be asked to endorse the parachuting in of candidates with no special qualities and no local connections simply to satisfy some sub-factional need.

We know that high-quality local candidates with proven local achievements and connections are either standing or want to stand and have James Button and I have urged the Labor Executive to support them and to resist demands to install less qualified candidates over them.

To lay charges arising from the IBAC revelations at the Victorian ALP Disputes Committee 

During this week Jenny Beacham, Eric Dearricott and Jamie Button will send a notice of intent to Party Monitor John Thwaites advising of our intent to laying charges either for branch stacking or bring the party into disrepute before the Victorian Labor Disputes Tribunal against those implicated in the IBAC evidence and seeking his support and assistance in uncovering evidence at State Office to pursue these charges.

To require the AEC or VEC conduct ALP elections and preselections

Given the rorting of Victorian Labor’s internal elections as exposed at IBAC, Open Labor and the Independents will ask the Interim Governance Committee to contract the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) or the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) to conduct our elections especial those held at State Conference but also preselections and the postal ballots for National Conference delegates and the POSC.

To seek changes in the Victorian ALP State Office approach to suspected branch stacking  

At least since 2005 State Secretaries and their Assistant Secretaries have not been proactive in preventing branch stacking. Open Labor and the Independents will send a joint request to the current State Secretary and the two Assistant Secretaries seeking commitments that  whenever they become aware of a possibility that branch stacking may be occurring, they will immediately refer the concern to the Party Monitor for investigation.

Issues to be developed as rules change submissions for State Conference

To change the system for electing State Conference delegates

There was consensus across all groups at the forum that given branches are to be organised on the basis of one branch per state electorate, the delegates to State Conference should be elected by and from those State Electorate Branches and no longer on an FEA basis. This would mean that each State Electorate Branch would have at least one delegate directly answerable to it. 

There was also broad agreement that to prevent reward for branch stacking a maximum should be placed on the number of delegates to State Conference an electorate can have.

To reduce the power of the Public Office Selection Committee (POSC) 

There was a consensus that the POSC was no longer fulfilling the role of being a guardian to ensure that quality candidates were preselected but in the main had become a vehicle via which factional agreements were enforced regardless of the quality of candidates and the level of their local support thus disenfranchising the membership . It was agreed that the preselection weighting given to the POSC should be reduced but by how much was a matter for further discussion.

Ongoing activities hosted by the Independents and Open Labor to assist ordinary members to Reclaim Our Party will take place from early next year and will be advised through communications from each group.

Read presentations at the Reclaim Our Party forum.

The Independents and Open Labor sent out an Open Letter to supporters on 10 Dec 2021 seeking urgent action from the National Executive to stop the unfair preselections likely for ALP state candidates.

By

Eric Dearricott – secretary of the Independents, Administrative Committee member for 20 years

James Button – convenor of Open Labor