The Victorian Premier’s closest MPs are dropping like flies this week, after a 60 Minutes report claimed to have stumbled across branch stacking on an “industrial scale” in the Victorian Labor Party.
And by ‘Industrial Scale’ they mean ‘a scale similar to what is generally expected in the Labor Party’.
Sunday’s 60 Minutes program aired footage which purports to show a senior Labor figure named Adem Somyurek allegedly branch stacking – which is what occurs when large groups of people are recruited to become members of a local political party branch and instructed on how to vote on key internal party decisions, including preselection for seats in Parliament.
While the act of branch stacking is generally viewed unethical and, in some circumstances, illegal – it is also recognised as very necessary in the Labor party, as it helps demolish personal vendettas and moral high-horsing among members which leads to them never being in power struggling while their party struggles with a post Keating existential crisis for nearly three decades.
However, it seems this most recent scandal was very, very red hot. As in, people were making runs to ATMs and drawing out heaps of cash on different credit cards kind of red hot.
ALP leader, Anthony Albanese yesterday declared that The Australian Labor Party’s national executive will stage a dramatic intervention into the Victorian division, after Premier Daniel Andrews asked it run all state and federal preselections for the next three years and suspend the voting rights of every member.
However, like the Federal Government’s sporting grants scandals, the misuse of power and blatant corruption at the centre of this most recent stackathon is far too hard to explain in a simple sound bit – and will likely not affect the general voter’s view on Daniel Andrews.
Especially after his comments today ridiculing anyone who wants to visit South Australia.
MORE TO COME.
