
Issue No 33		01 October 1999

Trades Hall

Costa on Factions

The Labor Party is to be congratulated for being mature and self confident enough to hold an open debate on the future of the party's structure this weekend.

I have been arguing for some time that change needs to occur in the ways the Party and factions operate and this weekend's debate is a chance to talk about this in a constructive way.

I'm not advocating any binding resolution out of conference, merely the beginning of a process to open the party up and engage with the new demands of a rapidly changing post Cold-War world.

I concede that calling for Party and factional reform, particularly from someone who has been closely associated the Party machine, has understandably raised howls of scepticism from some and sniggering questions about my sanity from others.

But in an era where fewer people are committing themselves to organisations of any kind, these are issues that must be addressed. My prime motivation comes from a realisation that the trade union movement, at a time of crisis, must devote all of its resources to its own survival through organising.

The challenges facing the trade union movement will not be easily overcome. Unions face years of struggle to re-establish their central role within our society.

For those of us from the Right it is not a question of giving away our power to another faction.

More, it is a question of looking at how we spend our time and effort and asking ourselves if there are better ways of doing things. I would rather that activists focus on organising workers than wasting precious resources on internecine conflicts.

I would expect a process of defactionalisation and Party reform to be even more challenging to the organised Left, which is premised on the notion of structured oppositionalism.

Some on the Left have recognised the merit of change, but others are struggling to come to terms with a world where previous ideological certainties have collapsed.

The current structure of the Party and the factional system was an important organiational innovation. It allowed the labour movement to manage its Cold War tensions in a manner that didn't destroy the movement.

Trade unions, because of their historical role in establishing ALP and their continuing support in the Australian community (a recent Labor Council-Newspoll found 70 per cent support for unions), they will always remain a core constituent of the ALP. Whilst I am sure the trade union movement is open to the discussion, initiated by the Premier, on broadening the Party's base, a fundamental precondition for the trade union movement support of this is Party reform. Trade unions are democratic institutions, officials are subject to independent financial and legal controls. Party branches are subject to nothing other than Party rules which are routinely breached.

Reform of the branch structure is all about making branches more relevant and accountable. The current suburban structures could be replaced be wider electoral districts. This would allow rank and file members to vote for conference delegates, replacing the current collegiate system. These branches would meet quarterly, rather than monthly, and would have greater responsibilities in terms of fundraising, policy formulation and education.

- Financial targets would be set for each branch - these would be substantial, but realistic and form the basis of party activities. The branch chook raffle would be replaced by larger scale activities that connect the branch with the broader community.

- Meaningful policy forums should be held in each branch, with MPs taking greater responsibility for informing branch members on the policy positions of the Party. Without this type of effort, any move to give greater weight to rank and file members at State Conference would be resisted. - Member education should be a priority. All new members should be required to attend an induction course, possibly over a weekend, which would provide them with a history of the Party, its current structures and its policy positions. Members would also be expected to attend a biannual refresher course. Attendance at these courses would be a prerequisite for voting in preselections, a move which would significantly limit branch stacking.

The final area of review is the Proportional Representation rule, which allocates votes according to factional size. The PR rule institutionalises factions, forcing people to make choices early in their careers about what factions they will join. It is common knowledge that most rank and file members align themselves with the faction which controls the branch they join, it is seldom a conscious ideological decision. This also results in the alienation of potential members who want no part of the factional system.

Preselection for election candidates is the area where these distortions cause the Party the most damage. Branch stacking, paper members, phantom meetings - they're all about winning preselection for one of the factions, to maintain its strength up the chain. One hundred per cent rank and file preselection should be replaced by a panel system comprising local members, a central panel and the Parliamentary leader or a nominee. The details of proportions need to be discussed, but 50-50 would be a good starting point, with the Parliamentary leader having a veto.

We should also look at facilitating a greater turnover of MPs, so that the parliament party's talent pool is constantly topped up. We should look at term limits on all non-Ministerial, shadow minister or Parliamentary Secretary MPs, which could be overridden by the party if it was deemed to be in the Party's electoral interest, for instance a popular member in a marginal seat. Again, this is about re-connecting members with their branches. Three terms would be a reasonable limit.

In every part of our lives the shift from and industrial economy to an information economy is seeing hierarchical structures replaced with flatter networks. The Party reforms I am advocating are completely consistent with this shift and would be an important step in ensuring Labor remains relevant into the next century.

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Issue 33 contents

Interview: The Boys
Labor Party heavyweights Eric Roozendaal and Damian O'Connor will lock horns this weekend. They fire their first shots.

Economics: Reasons to Be Cheerful
Can we change the way we look at the economy to better reflect community happiness and well-being?

Unions: Breaking the Wave
ACTU President's submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Workplace Relations Act.

International: The Wisdom of Solomon
A disturbing case from the Pacific where corporate lawyers are playing a deadly game.

History: Groundhog Day
Ghosts of Conferences past: some strangely familiar debates and decisions from previous state ALP conferences

Legal: Bad, Bad Things
Some of Australia's leading industrial lawyers argue that the Workplace Relations Act breaches basic international obligations.

Review: Tailing Out
As the BHP steelworks close in Newcastle a special book chronicles the stories of working live that have just become history.

Satire: Police Cut-Backs Lead To Drop In Organised Crime
An audit of the NSW Police has revealed that they have been seriously cutting back their operating budgets to ensure that they will be able to afford the increased security costs of the Olympics.

Work/Time/Life: It's Official: Aussies Work Harder
Australians continue to work long hours in contrast to a world-wide trend in industrialised countries that has seen hours at work remaining steady or declining in recent years.

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» Arch Apologises for Youth Wage Debacle

» Clean Air Policy Up In Smoke

» Child Carers Stretched to the Limit

» Building Workers Won�t Settle for Half Pay

» Life, Art and Politics