Richardson: The myth of Labor’s factions
It was supposed to be the Libs that self-destructed after the election.
Ok, so we’re not eliminating the prospect of that still occurring, but they’d be hard-pressed to do so quite as spectacularly as Labor did this week (although the SA Liberal Party does relish a challenge).
But at least the Libs, when they regularly implode, do so over significant concerns; generally the leadership of the parliamentary party but occasionally too on matters of policy principle. The Upper House spat between two minor players spanning the ALP’s factional divide is notable precisely because it should be utterly irrelevant.
John Gazzola has sat in parliament for 12 years without holding a ministry; Russell Wortley held one for a mere 18 months from Rann’s dying days till Weatherill’s first major reshuffle. That these two have successfully derailed the opening weeks of the parliamentary term is a fair indication of why the ALP notionally advocates abolishing the Legislative Council.
The pettiness of the spat is quite astounding. Having baulked at the Premier’s stated intent to modernise and revitalise the workings of parliament, fellow left-winger Gazzola seemed genuinely put out when he was told he had lost his party’s endorsement to remain as Upper House president. Then, like a monarch blinking in the face of revolution, he simply refused to budge for a while, until he realised that perhaps it wasn’t all about him and he had little choice but to slip back to the measly $150K pay packet of a career backbencher.
But besides embarrassing himself and his party, his strange speech this week was almost ludicrous in its blissful lack of self-awareness.
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He lamented the fact that he lost the presidency “through a secret factional deal”, as if it is some revelation that the ALP operates quite successfully under a factional system. Does he expect its machinations to be deliberated publicly?
"… Adelaide’s problem has always been too much consultation, too much heed to the misgivings of every concerned interest group, resulting far too often in policy paralysis."
Surely to God he recognises in some private moment of clarity that he himself was only ever installed by way of a factional deal (does he think his appointment was merit-based?) and in fact that his entire parliamentary career was at some point signed off by factional consent. As was Jay Weatherill’s ascension to the Premiership, and as indeed was any Labor ministerial appointment … well … ever!
Gazzola then famously condemned his right-faction successor Wortley as a “parasite” and an “embarrassment to the Labor movement”, insinuating some historic corruption, long since raised under privilege by the Opposition and denied by Wortley. He also (though less spectacularly) besmirched his left faction colleague Kyam Maher, whom he distinguished as “a member of new Labor, whereas I am old Labor which valued loyalty and collectivism”.
But there was little loyalty or collectivism is his sign-off, which thundered: “Let there be no doubt that the Jay Weatherill minority government is united, in that the right’s dominance over policy and positions and a substantially weakened — almost to the point of irrelevant — progressive left, gives the right almost free rein over the government’s agenda.”
David Washington already pointed out in these pages that the timing for such an observation is a little askew, since the Left has never enjoyed such a profound influence in the parliamentary Labor Party. Beyond that, tell us something we don’t know, John! It’s hardly a bombshell that the Right is the dominant Labor faction; it always has been.
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But the breathtaking hypocrisy of it all suggests a willful ignorance that can only have fermented in the confines of the sheltered workshop that is the Upper House.
Gazzola, as an old-school leftie, may despise his factional opponents more than he hates the Liberal Opposition, but by perpetuating this myth about Labor’s faceless men he has seriously damaged his party’s standing. The truth of it is, Labor is the natural party of Government because of, not despite, its rigid factional discipline. And to lament that its workings are done in secret? What, would he prefer the Liberal method of airing all their dirty laundry publicly — a sure-fire recipe for electoral success, as successive elections have indeed proved!
The factional folly is one of those political myths that has been allowed to blossom of late, much like Weatherill’s own “consultation” mantra, designed to distinguish himself from the “crash through” approach of Mike Rann and, more specifically, Kevin Foley. The problem is, while it all sounds very inclusive and progressive, Adelaide’s problem has always been too much consultation, too much heed to the misgivings of every concerned interest group, resulting far too often in policy paralysis.
Now that we can see the fruits of Foley’s zeal for Adelaide Oval, can we concede that it simply never would have happened had we been subject to Weatherill’s “consult and decide” strictures. Sure, K.Fol went too far the other way, conveniently forgetting pertinent information about costing blow-outs in the lead-up to the 2010 election. But that aside, he dragged parties to the table and he forced the proposal down people’s throats.
That’s how you get things done in South Australia, and then you throw your achievements on the judgment of the electorate. And yet now, instead, the Labor Party is paralysed by arguments over who gets to be president of the Upper House.
Perversely though, this little episode has served to unite the party somewhat.
One insider yesterday confided to me that the ousted president’s frank assessment of his successor as an embarrassment to the cause was something with which “100 per cent of the ALP in SA” would concur.
However, they continued: “That 100 per cent also agrees that his assessment would have been just as valid if Gazzola had delivered it while facing a mirror.”
Tom Richardson is InDaily’s political commentator and Channel Nine’s state political reporter.
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