Delia Delegate has filed the definitive guide on how the numbers fall in the Sword vs Feeney-Shorten battle ravaging the Victorian Labor Party.
There are three camps – NUW Loyalists, Swingers and the Labor Unity residue.
In giving this list, there are bound to be caucus members I’ve missed or got it slightly wrong but this is basically where it’s at:
Spring Street
NUW Loyalists
Denise Allen – won Benalla by-election, highly critical of Feeney
Ann Barker – former Simon Crean staffer and State MP in 80’s
Mary Gillett – former NUW official
Ben Hardman – respected rural MP from some sort of Eketahuna place
Tim Holding – future Minister and Leader
Bob Stensholt – won Burwood from the Liberals
Matt Viney – marginal seats campaign wizard
Monica Gould – 3rd highest ranking Minister
(Those above have already stopped attending Parliamentary Labor Unity group meetings before Caucus and will be having their own meetings)
Swingers (Have loyalties to both sides or are confused)
Sheryl Garbutt – Minister for Natural Resources and Environment
Andre Haermeyer – Minister for Police
Rob Hulls – Attorney-General
Craig Langdon – Langdon, Leighton and Lim are all influenced by what Sercombe does.
Michael Leighton – Sercombe
Hong Lim – Sercombe
John Lenders – former State Secretary, now Minister for Industrial Relations, will probably stay in Labor Unity but supportive of Sword and Holding personally
Jenny Lindell – loyal to Tim Holding but has conflicting loyalties, employs anti-Network elements. Known to despise Conroy.
Justin Madden – Will go with swinging Ministerial colleagues, sympathetic to Sword position. Sword opposed his preselection vehemently saying it was a stunt but Madden has employed trusted Senior Policy Adviser Geoff Pulford, a leading NUW/Network identity devoted to destroying Conroy. Pulford is a probable candidate to replace one of the five federal MP’s being reviewed at the moment.
Steve Bracks – Will keep quiet on this issue but influenced by Chief Political Adviser Tim Pallas who is very loyal to Sword
John Brumby – Known to be sympathetic to Sword but reluctant to leave Labor Unity.
Judy Maddigan – Deputy Speaker, doesn’t like Conroy.
Labor Unity
Christine Campbell – SDA
Telmo Languiller – LRA
Ian Maxfield – SDA
Bruce Mildenhall – influenced by Conroy
Tony Robinson
George Seitz – LRA
Elaine Carbines – part of the Marles Geelong group
John McQuilten
Bob Smith – former AWU Secretary, has improved golf handicap considerably since being in Parliament
Theo Theophanous – LRA, close to Conroy
Marsha Thomson – former Secretary of faction, now Minister, believed to be critical of excesses of Feeney/Shorten. Last National Conference, with Sword’s backing, successfully took National Executive position from Feeney/Shorten’s candidate
Sang Nguyen – Conroy’s Vietnamese warlord
Joe Helper
As you can see, even allowing for all the Swingers to go with Labor Unity, which is possible, some say likely, there has been a huge fracturing of the Right caused by the excesses of Feeney-Shorten.
If you take out the left wing refugees in the form of the LRA, branchstackers, conservative catholic SDA types and golf players, there isn’t a core of Labor Unity in existence in the State Parliament.
In the federal Parliament, there is also a division although things are weighted towards Feeney-Shorten more after successive victories in federal preselections.
NUW Friendly (but all possible turncoats, especially Roxon)
Anna Burke MHR – employs Network staff and is strongly supported by Network campaign experts in her marginal seat
Simon Crean MHR – former NUW General Secretary
Nicola Roxon MHR – former NUW official, believed to hate Shorten now but is worried about Conroy using his Vietnamese numbers against her. Has considered moving to expose branchstacking in Gellibrand but this would involve war with Conroy.
Bob Sercombe MHR – worried about Shorten unleashing his central numbers on his local powerbase, a weakened Shorten can only help Fortress Bob.
Could Go Either Way
Christian Zahra – loyal to Feeney but once Feeney sacked will go with Roxon who used to work for NUW.
Senator Robert Ray – employed Tim Holding, leader of Network and rising ALP Network star Mayor of Brimbank Andres Puig. But Ray is not always respectful of NUW leadership role in the Party and opposes alliances with Kim Il Carr and has ties with Conroy going back decades. Is pondering retirement…
NUW Enemies List
Anthony Byrne MHR – SDA & Branchstacker
Senator Stephen Conroy – Branchstacker
Michael Danby MHR – SDA & Branchstacker
Kelvin Thomson MHR – SDA
Senator Jacinta Collins – SDA
According to Sword’s supporters, the above list will be closely examined prior to federal preselections. Inquiries into the most stacked seat in Victoria Holt and Byrne’s activities, Conroy’s stacking in Gellibrand, Danby in Melbourne Ports and Marles in Corio will cost probably five people their seats in Parliament. Collins and Thomson are also considered likely to be removed for their support of conservative catholic organisations and Conroy.
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