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Defiant Labor rebels: ‘It’s not about bums on seats, it’s about party reform’

SA Labor’s defiant hard-left sub-faction insists there is a groundswell for reform within the party “now we’re no longer in government”, despite again falling short in a ballot of rank and file members to send delegates to December’s ALP National Conference in Adelaide.

Jun 07, 2018, updated Jun 07, 2018
Maritime Union state secretary Jamie Newlyn is a key member of new activist collective Active Left. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily

Maritime Union state secretary Jamie Newlyn is a key member of new activist collective Active Left. Photo: Tony Lewis / InDaily

Active Left, an amalgamation of hard Left unions, grassroots activists and community groups campaigning for internal Labor Party reform, will however send two union-backed delegates to the party’s peak policy forum, which will be held in SA for the first time since 1979.

The conference has been shifted to December after a slew of by-elections – including Mayo in the Adelaide Hills – were scheduled to be held on July 28, when the forum was originally set to conclude.

SA will send 34 delegates to the conference, 12 of which were determined by a rank and file ballot of the membership, which saw the state divided into six zones, each represented by two delegates.

Labor insiders told InDaily Active Left ran candidates in four of the six zones, without success – with one of their candidates only mustering a single vote out of 150.

But Active Left figurehead – Maritime Union secretary and SA Unions president Jamie Newlyn – will still attend the conference as one of 22 centrally-elected local delegates, along with fellow Active Left candidate Debra Snelson, from the National Union of Workers.

“We’re certainly saying it’s a positive step,” he said, adding that the rank and file ballot was nonetheless “very much a Machine-led proposition, with a left and right candidate in pretty much all the zones”.

“What we did do was give rank and file members an opportunity, rather than left it to a cosy little deal between Labor Unity [the Right] and PLUS [Progressive Left Unions and Sub branches] factions,” he said.

“And we weren’t overly impressed with the voting system and mechanisms either, but such is life.”

Despite failing in the members’ ballot, Newlyn said he’d favour expanding the rank and file participation beyond just 12 of the 34 delegates, saying it “doesn’t really apply a proper reform agenda to rank and file participation and democracy, in our view”.

“I would have liked to have some more rank and file members vote for candidates to national conference,” he said.

But party insiders were dismissive of Active Left’s involvement, saying the collective mustered “just over 10 per cent of the vote” after some own goals, including putting out propaganda “telling people the wrong place and time to go and vote in the ballots”.

“I don’t know anyone – except maybe Jamie – who would regard having two out of 34 as a success,” said one.

“I’m sure there’ll be claims of success, but I think most other people who aren’t Jamie Newlyn would say this is not a great success at all.”

Asked about whether Active Left distributed the wrong information to its members, Newlyn conceded: “We might have stuffed something up there, but I’m unsure it impacted particularly.”

“The process was a little flawed… the information out of party office wasn’t particularly useful,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, we’re out there to try and ensure there’s more rank and file participation… if we can get people in the Labor Party playing a role, more people would be inclined to participate if they generally feel their voice will be heard.”

He said Active Left was increasing its representation beyond the conference, with more unions involved and more sub-branch delegates.

“Our numbers, while small, are starting to reflect that people want to see some change now we’re no longer in government,” Newlyn said.

He said he believed people were “more inclined to join” the sub-faction now they “are not relying on jobs and other things – the spoils of government – to impact their decision to join Active Left”.

“We’re not concerned about how we want with the ballots, because we knew what the outcome would be,” he said.

“It’s not our intention to just slip into obscurity and not be relevant… while we’ve got a say, we’ll continue to prosecute our position about party reform and giving members an opportunity.

“It’s not all about bums on seats, but party reform that delivers for rank and file members.”

Newlyn said he and Snelson would broadly vote with the Left faction at conference. There is some conjecture, though, as to whether Snelson’s union, the NUW, will be allowed to vote independently at National Conference, given it is a Right-aligned union in other states.

Newlyn insists delegates are “allowed to vote on policy issues with the Left or as they see fit”, but other sources say any NUW delegate will be effectively a Right vote, particularly on the crucial ballot to elect members to the ALP’s national executive.

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