I encourage all ALP members among you to vote 1 for party democracy – vote 1 for the independent/non-aligned ticket for the 2023 National Conference.
In Victoria the election for 45 ordinary member delegates and 22 proxies is a whole-of-state ballot. You should get your ballot paper in the week beginning Monday February 27, and have about six weeks to vote.
The independent/non-aligned ticket is excellent (see bios below), containing four dedicated and feisty party members with a wide range of backgrounds, experience and points of view, but all committed to maintaining a voice inside Labor that speaks for ordinary party members and is not subject to factional lockdown and all decisions being stitched up in behind-the-scenes deals.
As an Open Labor delegate to National Conference in 2018 and 2021, I could see the great value of having a non-aligned voice at the event. Votes are often very tight and a non-aligned group, however small, can have influence both by speaking on the floor and by casting its vote one way or the other. This is particularly the case in the crucial election of the National Executive, where the two main factions (and sub-factions and sub-sub-factions) are often locked in a fine balance, and a vote or two can make all the difference.
In terms of winning elections, our party is in a strong place – in power in six states and territories and in Canberra, and enacting key reforms. The paradox of party reform is that it is harder in the good times. But complacency would be foolish. We should support all those who keep pushing to create a larger, more influential third force in Labor politics, one that represents branch members, is passionately committed to party democracy, and keeps thinking of new ways to attract ordinary Australians to the Labor cause.
Please support Eric Dearricott, Janet McCalman, Hamdi Ali and Kimberley Wheeler for National Conference.
Jamie Button
Convenor, Open Labor
About the members
Eric Dearricott
As a teacher Eric, his wife Margaret and their kids moved about country Victoria, and in each place he took up leadership roles, and helped build membership and support for Labor in those communities. ALP life members, the Dearricotts have been a big part of Labor’s success story in Central Victoria.
As the sole independent/non-aligned member on the Victorian Administrative Committee Eric has often been the sole voice for the rights of ordinary members and has regularly exposed outrageous branch-stacking rorts.
An elected Victorian delegate to every National Conference since the mid 2000s, Eric has in recent years led the multi-state, non-aligned group in achieving major policy and rules changes, including the 2015 change that led to members directly electing at least 50 per cent of their National Conference delegates,.
Eric’s regular emails to members explaining and revealing information members would otherwise not be told have been a lifeline to many members and branches.
Janet McCalman
Janet has worked for many years to reverse the party’s neglect of its grass roots, and its lack of transparency and democracy, especially in pre-selections. She believes that AEC-supervised pre-selection ballots and party elections would encourage better candidates, create opportunity for community and CALD members, and build public trust.
A former president of the North Melbourne branch, Janet has worked with Stuart Whitman since 2019 to build a curriculum for the Labor Academy, a party training centre, containing an online platform and workshops, that aims to build capacity in the party and tap into the Labor movement’s immense human capital in Labor.
Janet is a life member of the Fabian Society, a former columnist with The Age, and editor, with Emma Dawson of Per Capita, of the influential 2020 book, What Happens Next: Reconstructing Australia after COVID-19, which included chapters from Anthony Albanese, Jim Chalmers and Clare O’Neil.
A social historian and author among other works of the renowned history of Richmond, Struggletown, Janet was a member of the NTEU until they gave Adam Bandt a million dollars in 2013 to win the seat of Melbourne.
Hamdi Ali
Hamdi Ali came to Australia in the 1990s, from the Ethiopia Somali region. His community work since 2010 includes:
- running the Carlton Housing Estates Residents Services, a Carlton-based resident association.
- running Estate Computers, which recycles thousands of low-cost computers for residents.
- founding the Carlton Men’s Shed and co-founding free legal advice for residents provided by Mr Ian Cunliffe of Carlton Legal Service.
- broadcasting every week a program in Somali on 3CR community Radio, and
- serving for four year as a board member, including a term as vice president on the Fitzroy Primary school council.
In 2020 Hamdi stood on a Labor ticket for the Melbourne City Council elections. He is driven by his commitment to community service, in particular addressing the continuing acute unemployment, mental health, housing and education problems afflicting African refugees, whose settlement was cursory and neglected by successive Coalition governments. He has a deep interest in local, national and international politics. Hamdi studied computer/network engineering at RMIT.
As a person Hamdi is a link, a voice for African Australians, that Labor needs. An Uber driver as side hustle, he a family man and the father of six children. His daughter Ridwan is planning to be a doctor.
Kimberley Wheeler
Kimberley has come to Labor and activism through her union, the MEAA, and has been an active party member for more than two years. She has been a musician and songwriter for a few decades, and runs an IT services business around her work in the arts.
Kimberley is the MEAA’s Victorian Branch President Musicians and chair of the National and Victorian Leadership Committees for Musicians Australia (music freelancers section). Musicians are gig workers in every sense and the union is working to introduce a payment floor for them in the absence of protection under the Fair Work Act, while also seeking to make their working lives more resilient and safe.
Kimberley is administrator of the North Melbourne Good Karma Effect, a charity that fosters local online communities by helping neighbours share resources and solutions to each other’s challenges. She also facilitates the Women in Stringbands project to address the gender imbalance in folk music, especially bluegrass and Appalachian music, and to highlight the stunning female performers in this field.
Longer bios are available at http://laborindependents.au/
Linda Davison says
It’s great that branch members can once again vote for National Conference delegates.