Sunday, May 29, 2005
The People Strike Back.
The campaign against the stinking corruption in the ALP stepped up another notch today with the news in todays Herald Sun that charges are being laid against a member of the Powerful ALP Right faction Telmo Languiller and sidekick Karen Sherlock.
This is just the start of the vital campaign to clean out the corruption led by non-aligned member Eric Derricott, and is the first in a series of charges that are expected to be made by the ALP’s Disputes Tribunal.
The entrenched ALP Right, led by Senator Stephen Conroy, declared all out war at the big Labor Confab last weekend, have a point of course. They say that it’s just a power game. It’s just the Left and the non-aligned groups upset about their loss of power. There’s some merit in this argument, but the Right have never been willing to confront the accusations laid against them, they don’t even deny them. They just hit back saying the left are playing a dirty game, and are just as guilty.
Many proponents of the Right would have you believe that these complaints are contrived. A new thing dreamed up by the Left ever since they list power. However these accusations have been around for a long time. Even when the Left held the power. Witness this 2002 article in Crikey penned by the mysterious Delia Delegate which says:
There we see the same accusations of brabckstacking (and the same names) back in 2002. We also see the same attempts to involve the ALP leadership (Crean), but to no avail. Today the man in the hotseat is Beazley. He has been warned that this all could spiral out of control.
If the Right won’t admit their failings and come clean, then how can the people of Victoria trust them. It’s a crooked corrupt organisation and everyone now knows this. We say bring it on Eric. If this tears the ALP apart in the process then it deserves to die.
(Note: Another interesting connection pops in the same Crikey article – Stephen Conroy gets an invite to Andrew Bolt’s 40th Birthday – We’re curious how deep the ties between the Andrew Bolt and ALP-Right identities go)
Note: 3000 character limit on comments This is just the start of the vital campaign to clean out the corruption led by non-aligned member Eric Derricott, and is the first in a series of charges that are expected to be made by the ALP’s Disputes Tribunal.
The entrenched ALP Right, led by Senator Stephen Conroy, declared all out war at the big Labor Confab last weekend, have a point of course. They say that it’s just a power game. It’s just the Left and the non-aligned groups upset about their loss of power. There’s some merit in this argument, but the Right have never been willing to confront the accusations laid against them, they don’t even deny them. They just hit back saying the left are playing a dirty game, and are just as guilty.
Many proponents of the Right would have you believe that these complaints are contrived. A new thing dreamed up by the Left ever since they list power. However these accusations have been around for a long time. Even when the Left held the power. Witness this 2002 article in Crikey penned by the mysterious Delia Delegate which says:
Theo Theophanous Member for Jika Jika (an amusing title remembering that Jika
Jika was once the name of a prison) and fellow branchstackers Keilor backbencher
George Seitz, Sunshine MP Telmo Languiller, and failed candidate Carlos
Baldovino to the faction may have increased the numbers, Network insiders
believe, but they haven't added to the integrity or stability of the Victorian
right. Many within the Network group believe that an attack on these former LRA
members is vital to remove the cancer of branchstacking from the Victorian
branch. Representations are to made to Simon Crean and several Party forums
detailing the operations of the LRA, including the payment of memberships by its
leadership in breach of Party rules and many other improprieties relating to
fundraising.
There we see the same accusations of brabckstacking (and the same names) back in 2002. We also see the same attempts to involve the ALP leadership (Crean), but to no avail. Today the man in the hotseat is Beazley. He has been warned that this all could spiral out of control.
The move came as senior Labor sources revealed that Opposition Leader Kim
Beazley had been warned by senior colleagues to deal with the branch-stacking
crisis in Victoria.
Party heavyweight Bob McMullan, the member for Fraser, and frontbencher
Gavan O'Connor, the member for Corio, visited Mr Beazley in March. They stressed
that the Victorian situation could spiral out of control unless he took action.
If the Right won’t admit their failings and come clean, then how can the people of Victoria trust them. It’s a crooked corrupt organisation and everyone now knows this. We say bring it on Eric. If this tears the ALP apart in the process then it deserves to die.
(Note: Another interesting connection pops in the same Crikey article – Stephen Conroy gets an invite to Andrew Bolt’s 40th Birthday – We’re curious how deep the ties between the Andrew Bolt and ALP-Right identities go)
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