Federal Government

LEFT-ON-LEFT VIOLENCE: Socialist Left Federal MP Vamvakinou could lose preselection

The ALP faces a bruising and surprisingly close preselection fight over the safe seat of Calwell. In the incumbent corner is a federal MP whose profile is so low it risks touching the Earth’s core, Maria Vamvakinou, a member of the Socialist Left faction loyal to Industry Minister Kim Carr.

The challenger is Andy Richards, a Geelong councillor who is very personable but hails from the extreme left AMWU Metals division faction. Richards had been touted for a position at Head Office by the ceremonial boss of the state AMWU Steve Dargavel but was repudiated by the rest of the SL, angry at his kissing up to the socially conservative SDA and NUW forces.

COMPETING CLAIMS
It is a complex tale, ably told by The Australian’s Rick Wallace below. The Ambition Faction are hopeful of achieving as much as 60% of the local vote this coming weekend which could quite easily be enough to unseat Vamvakinou, an MP so useless she makes Julia Irwin appear socially useful.

However, Carr loyalists are willing to defend their woman to the last comrade and ruble and are confident they’ll be able to snaffle at least 20% of the vote back from pesky ethnic warlords who are pledged to support Richards, not because of any personal attributes of his, but mainly out of a desire to reject Vamvakinou’s absentee landlordism.

ABSENTEE LEFTIES FIGHT FOR THE RIGHT TO LORD IT OVER WORKERS
While Richards lives in Geelong, where he serves on its council, Vamvakinou has never lived in her electorate, preferring millionaire’s row in Alphington, near the Yarra River.

To defend this indefensible candidate, the Carr machine has been pumping out an avalanche of direct mail including in Turkish and Arabic trying to persuade those members of Maria’s commitment to them demonstrated by getting someone to write in their language.

Sadly for Maria, this tactic is highly unlikely to break years of concern that Vamvakinou hasn’t really made the highest priority of their needs.

THE KURDISH REBELLION
One group of Kurdish rebels are believed to be particularly displeased at Vamvakinou and her Carr group sponsors taking them for granted in a style once pioneered by Saddam Hussein.

Their failure to support Cr Enver Erdogan, a smart young bloke of Kurdish descent, for the state seat of Brunswick, is believed to have sent his Dad into a frenzy of revenge and Vamvaknou-hunting. More power to their vengeful arm, patriot insiders say. Enver’s close association with popular mayor Lambros Tapinos could see them form a closer alliance in the long term, some hope.

SUNBURY LIBERATION
In Sunbury, the home of celebrities Steve "Jack" Medcraft, Che Evans and Cassie Van Den Dungen, the two candidates attended the meeting and explained themselves. When asked about how they would handle the tricky Sunbury conservative councillor Jack Ogilvie, Richards explained he would make a point of working with Labor people regardless of faction, just as he had in Geelong where he seems to maintain a civil relationship with forces aligned with Richard Marles. That response went over well.

Vamvakinou’s response amounted to a spirited defence of Ogilvie, regarded as the Great Satan by most ALP folk in Sunbury, possibly only trumped by the Slightly Greater Satan Jack Medcraft who is always advocating concepts like ramming red-hot pokers inside kiddie fiddlers, shorter haircuts for wayward youth or some such. The branch members were revolting, most didn’t think much of her anyway but many came away convinced of the need for a change.

IT TOOK A LONG TIME FOR THE AMBITION FACTION TO DO SOMETHING GOOD
The Ambition Faction have a strong enclave in Calwell due to the strong local support for popular local councillor Burhan Yigit. Much of what they have done in trying to purge Head Office of its talent, defend MPs well past their use-by date, play kissy-kissy with the ugliest and most extreme elements of the Socialist Left and generally act in a buffoonish way have displeased many observers, including VEXNEWS.

All we ask of patriots is that they be true to themselves. And there’s not any of that in brown-nosing the CFMEU, in our humble opinion. For saying so, we have offended a few who must have had a little oxygen deprivation by reason of having to hold their noses for extended periods.

But David Feeney’s Kissinger-style shuttle diplomacy between some of the hot-heads and Bill Shorten’s Labor Unity group shows that they are at least capable of seeing the past error in their ways. Feeney’s work in this regard has been commendable and certainly tireless, as his cheerleader staff insist on saying. They’re right.

If these merry band of warriors are allowed one "atrocity" let it be the fall of the Vamvakinou. The Left had their chance to replace her with a decent local, like Ros Spence for example and squibbed it. If they end up with Andy Richards, who once worked for Wayne Swan in Queensland and left in rather unfortunate circumstances according to our Queensland sources who slammed him and expressed complete astonishment he was being considered for a federal seat, they’d be getting entirely what they deserved.

Here’s Rick Wallace’s typically strong and well-informed piece which appears to have only been published in the Victorian print edition of the Australian but not elsewhere, hopefully Senor Harto will forgive our republication:

Power play for safe ALP seat – Senator slams `nuisance’ challenge
By: Rick Wallace, Victorian political reporter

FEDERAL frontbencher Kim Carr has slammed a challenge to one of the Rudd government’s MPs that threatens to destroy the fragile peace in the Victorian ALP.
Senator Carr has lashed unions from his own Socialist Left faction for trying to topple Calwell MP Maria Vamvakinou, describing their candidate Andy Richards as a “nuisance” challenger.
Supporters of Mr Richards, an official with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, claim they can muster enough support to defeat MsVamvakinou in a ballot on Sunday.
Whoever wins the preselection must cobble together an unlikely alliance of ALP members from the Turkish, Kurdish and Greek communities to secure enough of the local vote in the safe Labor federal seat in Melbourne’s north.
Because of a side deal struck between the AMWU and a chunk of the Right during past feuding, Mr Richards is getting some support from the Right and from local Turks aligned with ALP identity and local councillor Burhan Yigit.
One source from the so-called rebel Right said his group was obliged to support Mr Richards’s challenge and Ms Vamvakinou would have to win the support of local Kurds and a local Lebanese numbers man, Mohamad Abbouche, to survive.
“We are obliged to deliver to the Left unions. She (Ms Vamvakinou) won’t be sleeping well having to rely on a bunch of Kurds and Mo Abbouche. That’s not a good place to be,” he said.
The rebel Right, led by federal senator David Feeney, has now sued for peace, and a deal to unify the party is in progress, but if it moves to vote with the dissident Left unions in the ballot the whole feud is likely to explode again.
Mr Richards hails from the ultra-Left Workers First faction of the AMWU and is a councillor in Geelong, southwest of Melbourne.
While he has been telling locals he wants to represent the northern suburban Broadmeadows area, his opponents say he is trying to blackmail the Left leadership into allocating a bunch of other seats to his allies.
“The AMWU’s challenge is an attempt to say `f..k you’ to Kim Carr,” one source said.
Senator Carr, in an interview with Greek newspaper Neos Kosmos, said: “This is purely and simply a power play from a small group within the Labor Party aimed at leveraging further concessions.”
Another source from Ms Vamvakinou’s camp said Mr Richards’s challenge would also put the party further behind its affirmative action target of having women in 35 per cent of all winnable seats.
“It’s also ironic that while the party is having its most comprehensive look at branch-stacking, a union-sponsored councillor is shamelessly leveraging his way into parliament by nailing down a couple of warlords.”
Ms Vamvakinou said she was confident of victory in the ballot.
“I am surprised that someone who’s got no real commitment to the community has got an interest in representing it,” she said.
Mr Richards said he was running to support manufacturing jobs and migrant families in the area. “I thank Maria for what she has done but I think it is time for renewal,” he said.

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