WITH the murky inner workings of the Labor Party laid bare, shifty political operatives of all colours should be scrambling for cover.
The media coverage surrounding the Victorian branch stacking scandal, which has already claimed three State ministers, has barely scratched the surface – so far.
Reporters have suggested this type of activity is unusual, even rare – it isn’t.
They also claim the main prize is to control who sits in State and Federal parliament – it’s not.
The real prize is to control the parliamentary vote and, in doing so, to trade parliamentary outcomes to the highest cashed-up bidder – often to the detriment of the public.
KINGPINS
By stacking branches, factional kingpins ultimately influence who sits in parliament and how they vote. This not only gives them power to appoint or overthrow leaders, but provides eye-watering wealth as well – especially if the kingpin is, or is aligned with, a lobbyist.
Kingpins rarely, if ever, care if good legislation is rejected or bad legislation is passed. They are eminently more concerned with who the legislation may hurt and who it most helps. And, importantly, who will pay the most to either stop the new law or to have it waved through.
Such transactions almost always deliver one consistent loser – the public.
That’s why such deals are done in back rooms by faceless men (and women) – at arms-length from politicians – and are rarely, if ever, mentioned, documented or reported.
One such “arrangement” within the NSW Finance Ministry in 2012 did manage to see the light of day and the fall-out was career destroying.
According to 2013 reports in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph, Suncorp and Allianz insurance – both of who had engaged a political lobbyist – were working closely with staff of then Finance Minister Greg Pearce on CTP green slip “reforms“.
Their changes, which had passed the NSW lower house, stood to benefit the insurers by tens of millions of dollars a year. [see report below]
SELF-INTEREST
But, as usual, the changes would have hurt the public – badly. This particular law change was to limit medical insurance payouts to car accident victims, including children, to just five years.
It was anyone’s guess what was to become of badly injured or crippled children after this period. The political kingpins certainly didn’t care.
Thank goodness NRMA, against its own self-interest, stepped in with alarm bells ringing and the legislation was quickly killed in the NSW upper house by cross bench MPs.
In the resulting fall out, Minister Pearce and all of his most senior staff abruptly departed the Finance Ministry, though a range of differing reasons were given.
So how does branch stacking work?
A political Party branch is responsible for selecting a candidate who will contest a particular area – or electorate – on behalf of that Party.
Each political Party usually nominates one candidate per electorate who then contests a general election with the winner becoming a member of parliament for that electorate.
Loopholes exist, however, that allow factional kingpins to overrule the local’s choice of candidate and to select their own hand-picked “lackey” to represent the Party and the local community.
LOOPHOLE
In NSW, for example, a loophole exists which allows Young Liberal Party members to vote in branches outside the area in which they live. All other Party members are restricted to voting within their home electorates.
To take advantage of this loophole, kingpins focus heavily on recruiting young people.
They have “agents” scouting university campuses and youth events handing out invitations to flash “initiation” parties at top-notch venues. No expense is spared.
The prospective recruits are enticed into the Party with gold-plated job opportunities in politician’s offices (paid for by the public purse) or “donor” businesses – often clients of lobbyists or their legal firms. The expected payback is their loyalty.
After signing up to the Party, the new recruits are “bussed in” to the kingpin’s target electorate. Here they are obliged to vote down the local branch members’ preferred candidate and, instead, vote in support of the kingpin’s own choice for parliament.
After repeating this a few times, the kingpin starts to build a loyal team of “bought and paid for” parliamentarians.
LOYAL
“Bussing in” can involve lots of late nights and weekend work for the young recruits as they often travel long distances from home to attend and vote in targetted branches. But it’s worth it, they’re repeatedly told.
Just stay loyal, they’re constantly reminded, and one day they themselves might be gifted a seat in parliament. But they must remain loyal.
And if and when their turn for a seat in parliament arises, they’re obliged to do just two things if they wish to remain there: 1) Always vote the way they’re told, and; 2) Employ only the young recruits assigned to them by the kingpins.
And this cycle continues over and over and over again until someone, someday eventually takes a stand for the public and closes the loophole.PC
HOUSE OF CARDS: King of hearts Anthony Albanese, jack of hearts faceless man, fallen jack of clubs Adem Sumyurek.
POLITICOM: Albo cries ‘sexism’ while Labor burns
POLITICOM: Branch stacking loophole sparks violent turf war
The comments about the insurance companies were very interesting. They tried the same thing with the Fire and Emergency Services Levy (twice). The beneficiary of a well-funded fire brigade is the party that stands to pay out if property is lost to fire – ie, the insurance company. The current system – where the FESL is attached to insurance premiums – therefore makes perfect sense.
But the FESL component makes the premium appear higher, and insurance companies don’t like this. They want the premium to appear more affordable, so they can write more policies. To them, it’s not about fairness, it’s about greed. If rate of insurance take-up is not to their liking, they can always look at delivering better value.
They first tried this when Mike Baird was Treasurer – he was courted, but he rejected their overtures. Then when Dom Perrottet became Treasurer, they dusted off the old battle plan and tried again. This time the new Treasurer was duped, and he ran with their proposal, only to then see Gladys step in and kill it off, following the embarrassing fallout.
This is what happens when slippery salesmen are ushered into 52 Martin Place saying “look what we can do for you…”
Crikey! Yes, this outrageous ‘privilege’ for Young Liberals to vote in any Branch must immediately cease.
How can any ordinary citizen have faith that the very best person has been selected by their Party Branch to represent their electorate, their local issues?
I had no idea! But it certainly answers my musings when I sometimes mentally questioned if a new candidate in another electorate was the best that particular Branch could come up with!
However, the machinations of the Victorian Labor Party are so involved and venomous that most ordinary voters must be wondering just how many of this Labor Party are in any way honest, actually do have some idea of fighting for the peoples’ needs, on their behalf?
Time to remove this privilege from the Young Liberals it is not good for the Liberal party, not good for democracy and not good for the people of Australia. Anything which results in corrupt lobbyists benefiting over the tax payer has to go! this is an ugly scar on the face of the Liberal party.
“Anything which results in corrupt lobbyists benefiting over the tax payer has to go! this is an ugly scar on the face of the Liberal party.”
The Liberal party is infested with amoral left-leaning moderates. If they are prepared to countenance the murder of unborn children, do you think they would have the slightest reservation when it comes to defrauding taxpayers?
It seems that it takes an awfully long time for the penny to drop for dyed-in-the-wool Liberal supporters – if you vote for them, then you are complicit in their crimes against this country and its people. Of course, Labor is even worse and the Greens are simply insane, so the only viable option is to vote informally in the lower house (to delegitimise whichever party weasels its way into power), and for a decent minority party of independent in the upper house.
The political system in this country is not simply bent; it is broken beyond repair. Until the voters realise this and take the appropriate action, we will continue our descent into the abyss.