Form guide to the ALP national president contest. Party reform is the name of the game in the battle for the ALP national presidency, with all six candidates vowing to hand more power over to grassroots Labor members if elected.

Three of the candidates are left-leaning, two hail from the right and one is unaligned.

The ballot is the first since Labor heavyweights John Faulkner, Steve Bracks and Bob Carr called for major structural reform in their extensive 2010 national review.

And while the ALP national president wields little real power besides chairing the national executive and national conference, the position is symbolically important given the president is directly elected by members. Three of the candidates will be elected to rotate through the positions of president, senior vice president and junior vice-president.

So who’s up for the job? — Matthew Knott (read the rest here.)

CEOs in search of new defender. Recently retired CEOs can pack away the golf clubs. Graham Bradley’s two-year term as president of the Business Council of Australia is set to expire shortly, leaving his post up for grabs.

A spokesperson from the BCA confirmed with The Power Index this morning that no individual has as yet been elected to replace Bradley, and that it was normal practice for the selection to occur at the BCA’s annual general meeting — which takes place in November.

The spokesperson added that the position was typically the domain of “recently retired CEOs” and that we’d be “plucking names out of the air” if we attempted to speculate on who might be up for election. — Angela Priestley (read the rest here.)

No female PMs in Jess Rudd’s new book. Jessica Rudd’s follow-up to her debut novel will continue the personal and political dramas of her protagonist Ruby, but it’s unlikely to feature a female prime minister sinking in the polls, nor a de-feathered phoenix rising from the ashes.

Campaign Ruby was a political romp praised largely for its disarming prescience rather than its depth of plot. The tale of an unwitting prime minister toppled by his ambitious female treasurer generated columns of newsprint and media commentary as life imitated art and her father was rolled by his deputy. — Hilary Simmons (read the rest here.)