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  Issue No 100 Official Organ of LaborNet 29 June 2001  

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Review

The Insider


Neale Towart looks at a literary anti-hero who brings the factional machinations and double-deals of the ALP machine out of the back rooms and into the light.

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Murray Whelan's inside work would be unknown outside Victorian ALP circles without Shane Maloney. His stumblings through the corridors and the internal workings of a political party and government have been chronicled in Stiff, The Brush-off, Nice Try and The Big Ask. Maloney has changed names to protect the guilty and innocent.

John Cain himself, and many financial journalists have raked over the coals of the financial disasters that eventually spelt the death of the Cain government. There has been less interest the day-to-day activities of the foot soldiers, backbenchers, minders who run the electoral and ministerial offices.

Maloney began in 1994 with Stiff, set in 1984 during the first Cain government, with Murray then the humble electorate officer to Charlene Wills, Member of the Victorian Legislative Council in the seat of Melbourne Upper, and Minister for Industry. We also meet Murray's grasping associate, Angelo Agnelli, at the time Charlene's media flak and later to succeed Charlene in the seat. Murray spends his time dealing with the great range of people wanting the local member to solve their problems, with the major focus here being Mr Adam F****** Ant. Murray is constantly dealing with the factional battles within and between the ethic communities in the electorate, I feeling many would know well as he deals with the Turks, the Italians, and his estranged femocrat wife.

His family life and the tensions therein are part of this as he struggles to care for his son Red (and eventually loses him to his wife in Canberra. An ongoing feature of the series is Murray's concern and attempts to get him back. An area where he ultimately triumphs (as he does in many fields, always in unexpected and unusual circumstances).

Stiff thus covers a death in a freezer at an abattoir, the meatworkers, Ayisha and the Australian Turkish Welfare League, the Kurdish plight, the Office of the Status of Women Industrial and Technological Change Secretariat (OSWITCS) and other acronyms, do-it yourself abilities and how to get ripped off by your builder.

For the budding pollies out there using Murray as a guide to how to run the ship of state there are lots of pithy reminders of what is involved. When taking Mr Picone to meet the Minister about a disturbing story in the local Italian press which seems to have some bearing on ALP support and the pre-selection process, Murray notes that Picone, in publicizing his grievance, was "merely observing the cardinal rule of those who live in a safe seat: never allow yourself to be taken for granted."

Lunching is an important part of the climb too, and the drawback of Chinese food for the caffeine-addicted hacks is noted, "By some obscure culinary demarcation agreement, Chinese restaurants are prohibited from serving decent coffee."

This following the lunch with Agnelli, whose rise to prominence would be familiar to many. He got in with a legal firm specializing in compo claims. An indifferent lawyer, but excellent at following his political nose up the food chain, he eventually poached most of the clients from the firm who hired him, set up his own practice, and then concentrated on becoming a factional heavyweight on the Socialist left, using the connections he made on the way. Agnelli is a serious player but is "fearful of the rough company of party organizers from down the line...crude types who came fully equipped with invisible networks, tacit alliances, and uncertain ambitions. We who could fill halls with a single phone call."

By the end Murray has in his unorthodox way dealt with the body, and been pushed into the job as Agnelli's minder as he takes over from Charlene in a somewhat reluctant electorate. They don't like party heavyweights being dumped on them either.

We move then to The Brush Off (1996) where we find Agnelli as Minister for the Arts and Water Supply, and Murray sadly missing out on the full enjoyment of Salina's delights, in the Botanic Gardens as they stray from an arts function. Finding a body in the fountain somehow takes the edge off proceedings, and Murray finds himself knee deep in the wheeling and dealings of the Melbourne art establishment and the big end of town. There is more to Salina than Murray realizes, and she keeps herself well ahead in the art game. Again the union connections play a big part, with his discovery of large-scale fraud in an art exhibition at Trades Hall. This time he manages to save Agnelli's and the ALP's bacon with his sleuthing, coming up with the money, and manages to transfer away from the sharks of the Art world to Water, where he gets to open lots on new sluice gates, and his water-skiing improves out of sight.

This all takes place in the atmosphere of declining economic fortunes and as Murray comments, "whenever I hear the stuff about belt-tightening, I can't help but think how much bigger some people's belts are to begin with."

The last chance to save the party features in Nice Try (1998) as the attempt in 1990 to win the 1996 Olympic Games for Melbourne is the frame for the story. In the end, as we know, Melbourne never had a hope, "crossing the finishing line well behind Atlanta, Athens and Toronto.

"It was a humiliating rebuff...There is after all, nothing more demoralizing than coming fourth in an arse-licking competition"

What hope did they have when, as Murray muses, one of the IOC officials discussed family matters with Murray and commented how proud he was of his children, all seven of whom had just won scholarships to Georgia, Atlanta Tech. Quite an achievement considering one of them was still in primary school. The official was planning on being at the graduation in Atlanta in six years time.

Murray has been dragged into trying to get the various groups in Melbourne on side for various strange reasons, so he has to organize an Aboriginal Sports Institute as a major marketing device to impress the committee. Unfortunately the death of a young Aboriginal sportsman complicates matters, as do memories, feuds and defections left over from the 1956 Games. Murray makes a gesture to fitness himself, attempting to give up the smokes and going to a gym in this one. The well being of Red and his long distance fatherhood also play a lot on Murray. He manages to wangle red the main role in the dream the Torch relay, a closing event that leads to a hilarious chase through the kitchens, upsetting the Wallaby Ragout and many other fine Australian dishes.

The lost bid and the pay dispute with the Missos who work for the Water Board (which leads to many problems, particularly s the man who steals Murray's car makes a habit of breaking hydrants around the city with the car that are not fixed) are the straw that breaks the ALPs back in Victoria. Agnelli gets promoted in the end to Transport, which leads on to Murray's problems in The Big Ask (2000) as he deals with the hard men in the Transport Workers Federation. The Premier resigns, which leads to a female Premier. Anxious that we don't misjudge the ALP on this, Murray reminds us that this "should not be misconstrued as a commitment to gender equity. It just means the boys are losing their grip."

In The Big Ask The Victoria markets are the scene of a murder apparently involving Murray's truckie contact, who is on a mission to roll the corrupt union leadership in this one. Murray, meanwhile, gets involved in Agnelli's scheming aimed at ensuring he keeps hi pre-selection against a challenge that he asks Murray to run against him (and funds Murray to do so).

The fallout from these activities are unexpected for all, and Murray is finally able to regain custody of Red, do the right thing by ALP standards and send him to private school, and beat of the claims of women candidates in time honoured ALP fashion. Claims of ALP hypocrisy are answered with "as if that wasn't an accusation with which we had long learned to live."

A great series chronicling the rise and fall of the Victorian ALP. Don't be fooled by the marketing of the books as fiction. It all might have happened amongst the ALP tribes in Melbourne, or anywhere.

Stiff, The Brush-Off, Nice Try and The Big Ask by Shane Maloney. All published by Text Publishing.


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 100 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Baptism of Fire
It�s been a rugged few weeks for Labor Council�s new honcho. But John Robertson accepts it comes with the territory.
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*  Politics: Seven Days that Shook Our World
Chris Christolodulou surveys the wreckage from a week when the political and industrial wings of the labour movement collided.
*
*  History: History Sometimes Repeat
This is not the first Labor government to attack workers compensation entitlements. Some believe the Unsworth Government�s 1987 reforms were the beginning of the end for that administration.
*
*  Technology: Unions Online: Where To Now?
Social Change Online's Mark McGrath goes looking for what's on the virtual horizon for the union movement.
*
*  Media: The Printed Word Revisited
Rowan Cahill looks at the resurgence of the workers press and the lessons for unions in better communicating with their members.
*
*  Unions: Time For Second Gear
The trends are in the right direction but unions are still drinking small beer in the IT world and need to allocate more resources to communications generally, argues Noel Hester.
*
*  Satire: Texan Governor Faces Execution
The governor of Texas has been sentenced to death row after a jury found him guilty of killing hundreds of people.
*
*  Review: The Insider
Neale Towart looks at a literary anti-hero who brings the factional machinations and double-deals of the ALP machine out of the back rooms and into the light.
*

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