Lisa Singh shows the ALP she is not done yet
By Erin Chew
Scratching heads and hurt egos plague the left of Tasmanian Labor as they discern how their Senate faction deal fell through. Their plans to install union stalwart John Short as the number three candidate were quashed as soon as the Senate results indicated a “vote below the line” win for Lisa Singh, with whom they originally relegated to number six just months out from the election.
An unaligned-left Senator, Lisa was hung out to dry by the powerbrokers in her state and pleas for her reinstatement fell on deaf ears. In a nothing to lose situation, a grassroots campaign was born fuelled by the anger and frustrations of disaffected members that an injustice had been committed and that Lisa had to be re-elected. No one in the ALP expected this outpour of support against the decision to replace a capable Senator who represented the diversity of Australia with a middle aged, white male who came through the ranks of the union movement.
Ultimately, Lisa was re-elected not because of a closed door faction deal, but because she earned the trust and support of Tasmanians who voted for her impeccable track record and work ethic. The need to re-elect her transcended factional politics, because a vote for Lisa would be a vote for independent Labor thought, as well as a vote for action on climate change, re-settling asylum seekers and fighting racial discrimination – positions Lisa is known to be out spoken on.
So has the ALP learnt much from this experience? Probably not, because until it clears out the toxic forces within its ranks change will not come any time soon. Prior to the election, Mark Butler, President of the ALP spoke at the National Press Club and proudly stated that the ALP was modernising and adopting a “democratised” approach in its candidate selection processes to ensure rank and file members have more ownership in decisions that are made at both a local and at a branch level. It sounded quite hopeful that the ALP was on the road towards change, but old habits die hard, and in the case of Lisa, this “democratised” approach was not applied and the forces of the factions and powerbrokers ruled the roost. If ALP rank and file members in Tasmania were given ownership over the candidate selection process, Lisa would have been pre-selected into the number three spot. But because she was not afforded this opportunity, she was left to the wolves to fight alone.
Despite the fact that the ALP was of no help, grassroots campaign volunteers worked night and day and not only got Lisa re-elected as a Senator, but also increased the ALP’s vote in Tasmania. However, this win does not change the fact that the ALP is still riddled with major contradictions as it attempts to transform its relevance to match the growing diversity of Australia’s demographic makeup.
Relegating Lisa was a blow to multicultural representation, and the fact that this did not cross the minds of ALP decision makers is telling of its failure of being a culturally competent party which has lost its way in “democratising” its machine. Of course, having more women elected and on the Shadow front bench is extremely important and having a handful of senators and MPs representing other cultural communities is also imperative, but the truth remains that its representation of Asian Australians is quite dismal considering around ten percent of Australia’s population hail from an Asian background. And even though this should not shadow the achievements of newly elected MPs such as Linda Burney and Anne Ali who represent both Indigenous and Muslim Australian communities, they are just the one or two who have made it, but are still too few and far between to be considered as representative. If Lisa was not re-elected, Penny Wong would be the sole Asian Australian representative, sending the ALP backwards twenty years on culturally diverse leadership.
At the end of the day there were 20,000 Tasmanians who voted ‘1’ for Lisa and this is significant considering Bill Shorten gave her a call a week after the election to congratulate her. And despite being dropped from the Shadow front bench her return has defied all the rules of engagement in the ALP’s faction and power broking guide book. With continual advocacy and outcry from the multicultural and mainstream Australian communities, it is hoped that the ALP will soon realise and learn how important diverse voices are to truly represent the growing colour and diversity of this great nation, and how this trumps its current methods of operation. Let’s hope that modernising the party via a “democratised” approach will come to fruition one day, and that candidates are selected not purely based on factions but based on merit and contribution, and that the ALP lives up to its traditional roots and values of fairness and equality.
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Return to home pageServes them right! Lisa Singh has done a great job in the Senate. This is the sort of thing that Labor needs to relegate to the past. I was one of those who took the trouble to vote below the line so I could put Singh first.
I’m another who was happy to vote for Lisa. She’s a great worker. Like many other Tasmanians, I was stunned at the arrogance of the Labor machine in trying to dump her.
Yes, Kathy. This kind of ‘power broking’ is holding the Labor Party in the past. It’s exactly the sort of thing thatkeeps a lot of people from voting Labor.
Labor needs to take a long hard look at itself if it ever hopes to be back in government!
Well done Tassie!
Well said Erin Chew. Lisa Singh is a worthy representative of the People.
We saw more of this ancient faction system at work with the attempt to kick out Kim Carr for Linda Burney, another left faction member because to keep both would upset the factional balance the Right faction wanted maintained, even if it meant a less competent right faction hack, one of the Feeney soc con types, kept in the shadow ministry.
This result really makes me smile. I do not live in Tasmania but have written before about the travesty of relegating a hard working successful senator to a supposedly unwinnable position.
One would have thought the sacrificing of Louise Pratt for the odious fool Joe Bullock would have been a saluatory lesson but privileged white men apparently need reinforcement to learn.
Well done Lisa and all those who supported her.
Time for a long hard look at yourself Labor – preselection is not a gift to be bestowed, it is an earned opportunity.
Good !
Kaye, your work is so good. If I was ever to find myself on a desert island with only one daily internet wish, it would be to see your latest article. These old men need to leave off.
I’m stuck with my view of the ALP is that they are the alternative liberal party. I look forward to the day when all the union heavyweights looking for an easy pension are dead.
Tasmanians are not as gullible as some in other states maybe – we vote for PEOPLE first and parties second. Being a small place the candidates really get around and get to know a LOT of people. SO if they do a good job for US which is what the Senate is especially for, they’ll get our votes. You might remember the incredibly long career of Brian Harradine. His politics were not aligned with mine, but he was dedicated to the people of his state. Senators would do well to remember that when they are looking to be re-elected.
Good to see Lisa and Louise Pratt return and yes they were party blunders which the AIMN regularly points out but it seems the Greens have problems too so any article on that?
Greens co-founder Bob Brown has urged a “clean-out” of the party’s NSW division, which is dominated by extremist hardliners left over from the Cold War.
Although many Greens spring from the environmental movement, the party’s NSW leadership includes senator Lee Rhiannon, formerly of the Soviet-sponsored Socialist Party, and convener Hall Greenland, a one-time Trotskyist expelled from Labor in 1984.
The Greens party was thumped at the federal election, suffering a negative swing in the Senate and advancing little in targeted lower-house seats such as Grayndler and Sydney.
Dr Brown, who retired from parliament in 2012 after leading the Greens to their best result in 2010, has taken the division to task in an interview to be published in next week’s issue of The Monthly.
Former Greens leader Bob Brown calls on Senator Lee Rhiannon to stand down
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-29/bob-brown-says-nsw-greens-old-guard-should-quit/7673340
Bob Brown and Lee Rhiannon are both fine politicians who you could never doubt about their policy and political advocacy.
Finally – a demonstration of people playing ‘the system’ to their advantage. Long may it continue and may others also learn from the example.
31.07.16
The 51st and best State of the United States in which to live until recent decades has in the recent past seen some very disturbing situations, while under conservative rule. We have seen the treatment of minorities come in to public scrutiny in many ways. We have seen the growth sector of poverty increase the number of Australians to in excess of 2.5 million Australians living below the poverty line, and many social problems related to poverty, crime food shortages etc. come to public notice.
The solutions that we trust governments to supply to these situations are not forthcoming from conservative governments. There is a transition underway but it is not so much a transitioning economy, as it is a transition of wealth away from the general public and towards those who are already wealthy, thanks to conservative government policies. These governments do not rate well on matters of “people” or of “poverty” or of “the ever widening gap between rich and poor” as government policy is facilitating the worsening in all three situations.
It appears to me that the conservatives primary job is to shovel “our” taxpayers money into multinational corporations, who themselves pay little to no tax for the betterment of Australian society, very much similar position to the other 50 States.
Regards,
Shaun Newman
I’ve always thought we were the 52nd state – Israel being the 51st . . . ?
And what do the elected Tasmanian Labor reps say….?
http://www.themercury.com.au/news/opinion/sunday-insight-factions-in-a-singh-spin/news-story/5ca2ac5b8ef9bb82c98ed23675d77b80
I live in Braddon in the NW of Tasmania and was involved in getting Justine Keyes elected to replace Brett ‘the Gimp’ Whitely.
This election was significant for two reasons.
The first is that money couldn’t buy this election. Turnbull’s Forum and other dodgy deals pumped at least $250,000 into each electorate in the state for saturation advertising. The new Labor candidates had to fund their own campaigns and had tiny budgets.
The second is the heavy bias from the Murdoch Mercury and The Advocate and Examiner owned by the Fairfax group(with there new improved business model which got truth-teller Micheal West fired).
Every day in Braddon there were positive stories on the Gimp and Ms Keayes didn’t get a mention. It had no effect on the election.
There was an online and ‘onground’ campaign where the people came together that the Liberal machine didn’t know how to deal with.
Onground Ms Keayes and her volunteers made over 30,000 contacts with people between April and the Election.
Online the younger generation set up “I’ve Been Blocked by Brett Whiteley” which was mirror in other electorates.
The older generation(that’s me) gave them these information pages to link to
If an oversupply of money and propaganda didn’t work this time, it sure as hell won’t next election. There will be another age group of internet savvy Precariat added to the voter rolls.
@Keiren Jensen if you look at Catryna Bilyk’s attendance and voting record it should have been her on the bottom of the list.
This is a wonderful result for commonsense. I am surprised that not one poster,up to now,has even bothered to thank the person most responsible for it. Malcolm Turnbull,with the help of the Greens,changed the Senate electoral system to make it easier for this to happen,giving hope to other candidates in the future.
It may not be too long before we have a Senate that really is representative of the population.
nurses1968 has aggravated others in the past and now I know why. What a mean, delusion ridden little post, at 5.16.
But that’s ok, you stay and live in your tiny minded fantasy world.
Geez, I hate McCarthyites…