Labor

INCONVENIENT TRUTH: It’s time to open up political parties to all Australians

It is possibly one of the most favourite chattering class conversations in all of Melbourne: the internal failings of political parties, particularly the ALP.

It’s either full of stacks or too hard to join, controlled by ethnic warlords, big business, sleazy developers, union bosses or grasping Premier’s offices (pronounced orifice) or whatever.

THE COMPLAINANTS
In recent days, the left-wing press has savoured the delights of two grumpy rich old white blokes who’ve sucked on the parliamentary and politico staffer teat with the strongest suction for decades, the leftist Eric Dearicott and the Labor Unity aligned Race Mathews reflecting adversely on the parties that kept them in red wine, sci-fi books and turtleneck skivvies over the years.

Their views are largely irrelevant and we won’t bother rebutting them, save to say that Dearricott is an anti-American leftist who regards anyone of non-English speaking heritage as a “stack” and Mathews is a moderate who has expressed some very legitimate concerns that faction fights have caused some outrageous delays in the processing of memberships, usually because of one side suspecting the other of “stacking.” Race means well, most observers think, but appears also to have been sucked into the presumption of guilt that all recruits to a political party of non Anglo-Saxon heritage must be stacks, or not fully legitimate members in some way.

Amusingly, Dearricott was caught this year committing branch-stacking offences under ALP rules, although has yet to be duly punished. Mathews was routinely accused of stacking by howling at the moon lefty loon Diane Anderson, prior to her unsuccessful attempt to seize control of her mother’s estate in Michigan. Last we heard, Diane was living in a car outside her mother’s nursing home, wielding power of attorney papers in a desperate bid to gain control of the family loot. Like Cuba’s multi-millionaire former tyrant, Fidel Castro, Diane’s socialism and kleptomania have fused into a new and exciting (although so far unnamed) ideology.

Some hope she will return to Melbourne with her mum’s loot and form a brothel in joint venture with Bill Albon, the leading figure in the Socialist Left in the Higgins FEA and paid spokesman for the world’s oldest profession in Melbourne. A Gloria Jean’s voucher for at least half a dozen lattes will go out to the best suggestion for a name for Madam Diane’s establishment.

THE APARTHEID FACTION OF ANGRY WHITE GUYS
If Dearricott could get away with it, he would institute a special system of voter apartheid in the ALP, where Anglos like himself, preferably on the government payroll, perhaps with tertiary qualifications in social theory or semiotics would get a weighted vote, reflecting their ideological fervour, opposition to religion, hatred of America and such.

What neither of the rich old white blokes will talk about is that racism is a very strong factor in much of the discussion about branch-stacking in the party. If Race encouraged his Anglo retired academic mates from a local science fiction reading club to join the ALP to help fight his good fight for better enunciation of consonants, no-one would raise an eyelid. But if an Australian of Turkish descent signed up her neighbours or rellies as an expression of their views, the simple unpleasant fact, the inconvenient truth, is that in the modern ALP they are presumed to be stacks.

THE UGLY FACE OF POLITICAL RACISM
The apartheid faction in the ALP is alive and well. It discounts the votes of “stacks” (ie non-Anglos) and most certainly discounts the candidacy of non-Anglo candidates as “warlords”.

The opposition to it isn’t a procedural one. Keating stacked his way into a seat. So did Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd. None of them are called stackers or warlords. If Malcolm was Mustafa or if Kevin was Lù Kèwén, they would have been described in much harsher terms.

No wonder visiting Americans think we have some ground to make up in terms of racial harmony. Even the most self-righteously pious politically correct tossers of the notional left of politics show all the inclusion and respect for difference of an old-time leader of the South African National Party.

The fact that any one of them will have much a deeper understanding of Australian politics than most of the Young Labor Socialist Left dwindling membership combined is passed over by people like Eric Dearricott. Comrade Eric would hate being called a racist and wouldn’t see himself that way at all. He’s a member of a left-wing mainstream political party after all. And yet his political involvement has descended into witch-hunting members of non-Anglo-Saxon heritage, making sweeping and always unsubstantiated accusations that they are not genuine members, despite complying with every obscure and arcane rule.

THIS RECORD IS STUCK ON STUPID
This is not a new discussion. Even VEXNEWS is sick of it. There are only so many times one can point to the Klan politics driving some in the Left side of the ALP before getting a weary arm.

It’s time for a new dialogue about how Australian political parties work.

The great scandal of all their membership structures is just how small they are.

Last night, VEXNEWS exclusively reported on what was meant to be a hotly contested state Liberal preselection for the blue-ribbon beach-front seat of Sandringham. The incumbent won, 45 votes to 7.

A convincing win, we reported.

What we didn’t report is that it is a first-class disgrace that the 40,000 voters in that safe seat effectively have their MP chosen by a few dozen people willing to endure being a party member.

Contrary to the Age and other left-wing publications’ assertions to the contrary, safe seats are not necessarily the focus of great membership activity, presumably engineered by voracious ethnic warlords who covet seats and desire to take over the world from the rich white old blokes who own/run it.

Labor state minister Lynne Kosky’s safe seat of Altona has about 50 members. Labor has no chance of losing it. So the real community involvement in choosing their representative is bugger all.

The Greens political party has the same problem. A few hundred members choose their Victorian Senate candidate, in a postal ballot that is closely controlled by one of their MP’s.

THE ULTIMATE REVENGE ON ELITISTS: DEMOCRACY
Simply adopting a US style system of primaries won’t happen here. But we have a lot to learn from its inclusive nature. It’s been very interesting to see the NSW Nationals take tentative steps in that direction. They used to be a huge membership based party with hundreds of thousands of members. They’ve dropped off, as has the membership of many other voluntary organisations from Rotary to trade unions.

It is time for the rich, old, white men who benefited from an inherently flawed and exclusive system for so long to shut up and get out of the way of a genuine and serious discussion about reforming all Australian political parties to give power back to the taxpayers and voters who fund and support them with their votes. A variation on the primary model is clearly part of the answer.

The Age and their rent-a-quote brigade of Socialist symps have long ago succeeded in discrediting the previous system. They persist in shooting at a corpse. What they wanted was a smaller, more doctrinaire party, more power for the America/Israel hating extreme left in the ALP, what we believe they’ll get is their worst nightmare: a more open system with greater community involvement where extremists, elitists and apartheid factionists cannot prosper.

It’s high time to give it to them.

© 2009 VEXNEWS 2010©.