The amendment to the party platform – which prohibited exports to the country because it had failed to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty — was moved by Julia Gillard and seconded by South Australian premier Jay Weatherill. Left and right were broadly split, defectors cancelled each other out, and the vote was won 206-185.

Gillard said that as the party of “hard decisions” it had to move in the Asian century to secure jobs for workers. She said it was “intellectually indefensible” that Labor didn’t currently sell uranium to India while it offloaded it to China, the US and Japan.”

She argued that the NPT didn’t prevent nuclear fuel being sold beyond signatory countries – it was only Labor’s platform that prevented it.

Warning of a “green pulsating nuclear light” replacing the light on the hill, a fired-up Doug Cameron unleashed on the unpopular PM. “Prime Minister you are wrong, minsters you are wrong, premier, you are wrong…this is the wrong thing to do, the real argument here is how a country that has three wars with its neighbours.”

“The test for the Labor Party is are jobs more important than nuclear proliferation? I say no. I say no twice. You better get a better plan, Prime Minister,” Cameron stormed.

Eyeballing his lower house bete noire seated just metres away, Cameron accused the leader of outright subterfuge.

“If the US cannot get stringent safeguards how are you going to do it?,” he said, adding that it would be an “absolute tragedy for the Labor Party if this goes through.”

But it was not enough, despite other barnstorming contributions.

In comments that immediately prompted wild applause, Anthony Albanese reckoned “friendship isn’t built on subservience, it’s built on respect.”

A choked-up Stephen Conroy talked about his family’s struggles dealing with leaks from the Windscale (now Sellafield) power plant in Cumbria. At one point milk was banned, Conroy said, just as a waiter walked past the podium carrying two bottles of skim for the coffee machine.

“I never voted for it and I’m not going to vote for it today,” he said.

Responding to persistent heckling, the Right’s Michelle Rowland, speaking for the amendment, said the most popular last name in her electorate was “Singh” and that for many, the uranium issue was a reason for Indians not to vote Labor. The inner city contingent that favoured the ban was out of touch, she said.

“Just because you order the butter chicken from Indian Home Diner in Glebe Point Road doesn’t make you an expert.”

Ambitious AWU secretary Paul Howes, witnessed earlier attempting to settle his differences with John Faulkner after his faction killed the elder statesman’s much-needed party reforms, bizarrely accused Cameron of playing up for the cameras, a rather strange pronouncement given Howes’ fondness for the little red light.

“I believe that the 400 million people who live in India without power should have power and electricity.”

La Trobe MP Laura Smyth summed up by stating that while it was easy to make partial and circumstantial exceptions it is “always harder to stick by a cause that you actually believe in.”

Crikey understands that the Right’s decision to bring on the uranium debate was a direct response to the Left’s eagerness to proceed with same-sex marriage.

Conference continues this afternoon with the Kevin Rudd foreign affairs show.

While the vibe was generally positive, progressive activists and the Greens were quick to go on the attack to accuse Labor of settling for a conscience vote rather than a binding decree drawn from the platform.

At a 5,000-strong rally outside the conference convention centre, Labor was damned — partly from within its own ranks — for not going the whole hog, confusing some onlookers who viewed the Barr-Wong amendment to “ensure equal access to marriage under statute for all adult couples irrespective of sex” as a significant step forward.

The Greens were in a difficult position because the party allows their elected Members a conscience vote on all issues. Before the platform-conscience dyad popped up in the last three weeks, an appeal to conscience appeared to be the best the left could hope for.

In January 2010, Sarah Hanson-Young called on Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott to allow their MPs a conscience vote on marriage equality, saying “let the members of your parties have the courage of their convictions by giving them a conscience vote.”

On July 6, Hanson-Young reiterated her call for a conscience vote in the Senate, saying “All members in this place should be able to have a conscience vote on this matter… We need a conscience vote on my private members’ bill and I believe that it can happen.”

But not yesterday. “Rather than seizing the moment and bringing forward a guarantee of this legislation passing the parliament, the Labor party has opted out,” Hanson-Young said.

Rudd mingled and posed for happy snaps with gay activists as darkness fell at Cohibar at Darling Harbour’s charmingly-garish Harbourside shopping mall. He extended his warm congratulations on numerous occasions over changes made earlier in the day to the ALP’s platform to recognise marriage equality.

Labor MPs, including Rudd, will now be bound by a conscience vote on the issue after right wing delegates and a handful of the industrial left voted at ALP’s 46^th National Conference to inscribe an exception to party rules, effectively creating a get out clause for the Prime Minister and the Catholic right.

The issue will be considered by Parliament next year when amendments to the Marriage Act are introduced by the Left’s Stephen Jones. Rudd and 148 other members will get a vote but it only stands a chance of passing if the Coalition allows a conscience vote too.

Last year, it was revealed Rudd had struck a deal with the Left at the 2009 conference to campaign on the divisive issue in the lead up to the 2010 election, however the plans evaporated when Julia Gillard knifed her rival with the assistance of the NSW Right.

Gay activists had blamed the then-PM for guillotining debate on the issue two years ago when he stated his view that marriage should be exclusively between a man and a woman. His sister Loree recently claiming the drift to equality was being driven by a “global gay Gestapo”, however it appears Rudd’s personal position is now supremely malleable. Daughter Jess recently took to Twitter to commend Penny Wong’s views on the matter.

A spokesperson for the Foreign Minister told Crikey this afternoon that Rudd “has been repulsed by homophobic remarks made during the broader debate.”

“Mr Rudd respects those who have been long-term supporters of same-sex marriage. Mr Rudd also respects the decision of the Conference on this matter.

“He will examine closely any legislative proposals for change.”

Overnight, News Limited Sundays scribe Sam Maiden reported that Rudd had renewed efforts to launch a prime ministerial coup before next May’s budget. Previously the Daily Telegraph had reported that a “November coup” was on the cards – a deadline that lapsed last week.

A Rainbow Labor spokesperson, Neil Pharoah, said he was chuffed that the Foreign Minister had turned up to spread the love and that the group would be talking to Rudd to shore up his support over the next few weeks.

“It was excellent for him to come and enjoy the celebration and he was definitely been very supportive of everything Rainbow Labor has been doing over the past few weeks,” Pharoah said.

Others celebrating last night included representatives from the National Union of Workers that had supported the Left’s bid to block a conscience vote and bind MPs to lock in behind the newly-progressive platform.

But the exact number is yet to be set and Prime Minister Julia Gillard has referred the Bracks/Carr/Faulkner recommendations to a “implementation committee” for further discussion, rather than enforce details of the shift immediately.

Left delegates have slammed the lack of action, branding the PM and the Right’s decision to “squib” with baby steps instead of giant strides “a disgrace”.

During an extended conference soul searching session to discuss party reform, delegates broadly agreed that Labor was broken and in need of mass rejuvenation. However Left and Right differed on how far to go in opening up the party to the rank and file.

The Left had wanted 50% of national conference delegates directly elected, while Kevin Rudd has pushed for a more ambitious 100% figure. However the PM declined to put a number to her amendment, seconded by ambitious Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes.

The Prime Minister has requested the party deliver her 8,000 new members by the end of next year.

Mark Butler, from the South Australian Left, expressed his disappointment at not reaching agreement on a workable model. There was also disagreement over the Right’s position to deny party president Jenny McAllister and her two vice presidents a vote on Labor’s national executive. The amendment went to a vote but was defeated.

The Right had proposed a more democratic National Policy Forum replace the current National Policy Committee and also a national online policy branch, reduced membership fees, limited preselection primaries and so-called political action caucuses.

The Right are eager to limit popular elections because Labor’s regular (non-stacked) members are dominated by the Left. This was illustrated in the recent election for president, with McAllister elected with a massive majority despite the Right’s candidate Tony Sheldon garnering weeks of prime time TV exposure during the Qantas IR dispute.

AMWU NSW state secretary Tim Ayres mocked Right wing NSW general secretary Sam Dastyari’s height before alerting delegates to the “absolute crisis” once confronted by the trade union movement that had now engulfed the ALP.

Introducing the debate alongside his review report co-authors, former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks warned conference that if no action was taken, branches would close en masse and remaining members would be drawn almost exclusively from pensioners or people receiving superannuation benefits.

Faulkner, reprising his rousing style witnessed earlier during the gay marriage stoush, agreed that Labor was on the precipice.

“Our review process has by no means been the first opportunity for real substantial party reform in recent decades but many of those previous opportunities have been wasted and the situation is now dire.

“Our party is in decline, our membership is small and getting smaller, our membership is old and getting older, members and supporters told us they had lost their faith and they believe that the party has lost its way. Our support at all levels has plumbed new depths, depths not seen before in Labor’s darkest days.

“Our party has been around for 100 years, what is at stake is how to ensure we’re around for another 100 years.”

It took United Voice secretary Louise Tarrant to get at the nub of the problem. Rather than just change the party architecture, the social movements that feed Labor would have to re-energised. “Form follows function,” the organising model devotee noted.

A proposal from the Left for the creation of an Organising Plan in the mould of the UK Labour Party’s ‘Movement for Change’ and the US Democrat’s ‘Organizing for America’ was not supported by the Right and was defeated.

Tasmanian left delegate Adam Clarke called the decision to “squib” the BCF reforms as an “absolute disgrace”.

Another Left delegate, Mike Griffith, said the Dastyari and Feeney amendments were a start but was “not enough to deeply renew our structures and our membership.”

Left co-convener Doug “Doog” Cameron said he was “somewhat underwhelmed” by today’s outcome and was immediately ribbed by David Feeney-loyalist Stephen Donnelly, who had earlier lampooned Senator Cameron’s Scots accent.

As the clock ticked past 7pm with delegates gagging for a beer, Sheldon, by then chairing, implored interjectors from the public gallery to “keep their mouths shut” — perhaps a fitting summation of his faction’s approach to popular democracy.

A vote taken at the ALP’s 46^th national convergence was settled 206 votes for and 179 against Bowen’s amendments, which were seconded by Home Affairs minister Brendan O’Connor. The series of changes also included a jump in official refugee numbers from 13,500 to 20,000 (read an excerpt below).

Left and Right had split on the offshore issue despite Bowen’s attempts this week to lure progressive comrades with the jump in numbers and a relaxation of visa rules.

O’Connor at one point invoking the Holocaust by slamming refugee advocates who view people smugglers as modern day “Oscar Schindlers”. He likened the trade in refugees from Indonesia to slavery.

Bowen claimed that the best way to address the issue was “with a soft heart and a hard head.”

Lindsay MP David Bradbury, who famously boarded a Darwin warship during last year’s federal election campaign in a border protection stunt despite his electorate being landlocked, said Labor “needed to send the strongest possible disincentive” on smuggling, to calls of “shame” from pro-refugee delegates in the bleachers.

A slate of counter proposals from the Left, proposed by NSW Labor for Refugees convener Linda Scott and backed by WA MP Melissa Parke (read an excerpt below), slapped down the offshore diktat and urged the party to follow the current platform. It also called on the party not to discriminate against refugees based on their mode of arrival and end the 45-day rule banning refugees from working.

“We should turn to the light on the hill and not to the shadows of the past,” said Scott.

Textile union head Michele O’Neil, speaking for the amendment, received applause after pleading with delegates not “to reward the government for ignoring the current platform.”

But Corio MP Richard Marles, from the Right, angered the conference when he said that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.”

A non-contentious series of cross-factional amendments to abolish detention debts, end the 45 day work exclusion period for new arrivals stop asylum seekers being detained for no longer than 90 days was forwarded by Bowen and Seconded by the Left’s Cath Bowtell.

The amended Chapter 9 platform was finally passed at 4pm after what had turned into a marathon session.

A contentious debate on internal party rules will begin at 4:30pm.

A separate amendment to Labor’s platform proposed by Andrew Barr and Penny Wong to explicity recognise same sex tie-ups was carried on the voices. However, that victory is purely symbolic — when a bill on the issue is introduced next year the Coalition will team with ALP Groupers to shoot it down.

The outcome is a sweet one for the national right,who feared the leader’s credibility would be trashed by an open show of defiance. At one point it seemed the PM had been defeated on the voices, however a vote was quickly called for.

Last night, the PM granted delegates a free vote on the issue, despite socially conservative union leader Joe de Bruyn’s attempts to keep his faction voting as a bloc. The National Union of Workers’ seven Victorian delegates had pledged to vote as group against the conscience vote.

The outcome suggests the Left, with 177 delegates, held firm but that the Right, excluding the NUW, ‘binded’ to back the leader. Yesterday, the voting method, involving tellers counting delegates’ raised voting cards from a distance was called in to question when the left appeared to have snagged more votes than their numbers suggested.

Speeches on both sides of the debate were some of the most fiery seen in recent times at the usual tranquilised conference, with frequent heckling, interjections and thunderous applause.

Moving her amendment, the Prime Minster attempted to keep the debate’s tenor civil, calling for a “climate of respect” as the issue gets thrashed out.

“The issue we are about to debate speaks to people in a deeply personal way,” she said.

Seconding the PM’s amendment, Defence Minister Stephen Smith agreed that although a conscience vote was unusual, it was the best way to deal with the debate.

“The best way forward for us is to accord a conscience vote to enable delegates to deal with this issue so everyone with a view is accorded civility and dignity and respect which is tantamount to reflecting the modern Australia, a mature, tolerant Australia,” Smith said.

Moving the platform change on behalf of Rainbow Labor, an emotional Barr said that same sex Australians deserved equality “that’s not only functional and practical but also highly symbolic.”

“This is about dignity,” he said.

His address was met with a rousing standing ovation.

Wong said if her party discrimnated on any other measure, there would not be a person at the conference that would countenance it.

“I say to those that oppose change, there is nothing to fear from equality,” she said.

Opposing a platform change but supporting a conscience vote, de Bruyn was mocked by observers and activists, when he opened by proclaiming the party should use its head, rather than its heart to deal with the debate.

Marriage between a man and a woman had “always been this way since the dawn of humanity in any society and every civilisation.”

De Bruyn cited an Australian Christian Lobby survey that purported to show that voters in marginal electorates may abandon Labor if it changed its platform.

“When middle Australia looks at the images,” of protests surrounding at the conference, de Bruyn said, “they will say ‘that’s not us’”.

Labor Left legend John Faulkner said the issue was one of simple equality.

“It is not for government to to grant human rights but to recognise and protect them.”

“We will rise to the great traditions of our party, the party of reform, the party of inclusion”, Faulkner said, calling on delegates to erase “the limitations and bigotry of the last century.”

Faulkner said that voting in parliament to send young soldiers to war was not subject to a conscience vote and that the gay marriage debate didn’t fit.

“I take the view that a conscience vote on human rights is not conscionable.”

Senator Mark Arbib layed down the Right’s official line, supporting both a conscience vote and the Barr-Wong amendment.

“Views inside the party and inside the community are deeply held and they differ,” Arbib said.

He claimed Faulkner had previously supported conscience votes on a “case by case” basis for issues that intersect with religion.

Left parliamentary leader Anthony Albanese stumped for his faction, calling on the conscience vote to be shot down.

“By giving people rights they have been denied you do not take away rights for other members of the community.

“Let’s have faith in ourselves.”

Tanya Plibersek said she wanted to say to same-sex youth struggling with their identities community “you are just fine.”

“Almost equal is not good enough.”

However, for the moment at least, equality will hve to remain just out of reach.

Below is the text of the successful amendment to the party platform moved by Barr and Wong. Below that is the Prime Minister’s amendment to allow for a conscience vote.

Further Support Joe de Bruyn, John Faulkner, Deborah O’Neill, Michelle Lancey

Amendment 101A

Chapter: 9 – A fair go for all Australians
Paragraph: 118, 119, 120,
Page Number: 155
Mover: Andrew Barr
Seconder: Penny Wong
Amendment Text:
Amend heading between 114 and 115 by deleting words “against same sex couples”

Delete paragraphs 118, 119, 120 and replace with:

118 Labor will amend the Marriage Act to ensure equal access to marriage under statute for all adult couples irrespective of sex who have a mutual commitment to a shared life.

119 These amendments should ensure that nothing in the Marriage Act imposes an obligation on a minister of religion to solemnise any marriage.

Original Paragraph 118, 119, 120:
118

Labor will take action to ensure the development of a nationally consistent framework that provides:

the opportunity for all couples who have a mutual commitment to a shared life to have their relationship officially recognised

equal rights for all couples in Federal and State laws.

119

Labor will review relationship recognition arrangements to ensure national consistency.

120

These reforms are to be implemented consistently with Labor’s commitment to maintaining the definition of marriage as currently set out in the Marriage Act.

~

E. REGISTER OF CONFERENCE DECISIONS
9. Same Sex Marriage (decision of the 2011 Conference)
Conference resolves that the matter of same sex marriage can be freely debated at any State or federal forum of the Australian Labor Party, but any decision reached is not binding on any member of the Party.

Original Paragraph 9

As counting continued today, the ABC Elections calculator said Mayne had snared the fifth spot in the Legislative Council, despite the anti-pokies candidate polling just 1.06% of the region’s primary vote. If he is successful, and the Coalition fails to win a majority in its own right, Mayne would become one of the most powerful figures in Victorian politics.

The former Jeff Kennett staffer and Herald Sun business editor is the beneficiary of a slew of preferences from other parties, including the Greens, Family First, the Sex Party and the DLP. However, at the crucial point in the count, he is only 41 votes ahead of Greens candidate Alex Bhathal.

That margin could evaporate, with a record number of pre-poll votes tending to favour the Greens and the Coalition. Although absentee and postal ballots, that are also yet-to-be-counted, could swing the result back in favour of Mayne.

The other four spots in Northern Metro are certain to be taken by Greens titular head Greg Barber, the Liberals’ Matthew Guy, and Labor’s Jenny Mikakos and Nazih Elasmar. The fifth will be decided between Mayne and the Liberals’ number 2 candidate Craig Ondarchie.

“It’s a simple question that I’m a smidgeon in front and during the counting of absentee, postals and pre-polls, and if the Green vote goes down marginally, I’m well placed,” Mayne told Crikey.

Mayne said that if, as looks likely, there was a non-Labor majority in the 40-seat upper house, and he emerged with a share of the balance of power, he would work in the mould of Andrew Wilkie to toughen Victoria’s lax poker machine regulations, which suck hundreds of millions of dollars out of the pockets of low-income households each year.

Mayne said that ABC Elections analyst Antony Green had called him this morning to say that the summary page on his Legislative Council calculator had stopped working because the software couldn’t accommodate a non-party independent group winning a spot.

On the latest counting, the Coalition has won at least 19 upper house seats, Labor has 16, and the Greens have at least two. Country Alliance candidate Steve Threlfall could pick up Northern Victoria on Labor preferences and Western Metropolitan is also up for grabs with Labor’s Bob Smith and Greens MLC Colleen Hartland battling for the fifth spot.

As Crikey revealed in August, Mayne’s ability to snag preferences from the Greens and Family First had its genesis at the Federal Election, where a Mayne split ticket delivered Senate preferences to the two parties, in exchange for support at the state poll three months later.

He previously ran for the upper house in 2006 as part of the People Power grouping in Southern Metropolitan, however without the benefit of a favourable preference run the bid foundered despite recording a similar percentage of the primary vote.

Final confirmation of Mayne’s — and Victoria’s — upper house fate is likely to become clearer over the next few days.

UPDATE: Mayne has stretched his lead over Bhathal to 985 votes at the crucial 8th count with 68.38% of the vote counted, according to Antony Green’s calculator. Pre-poll and absentee ballots yet to be counted, postals continuing to dribble in.

After warning of a potential run for the Northern Metropolitan Region on his website The Mayne Report for months, the serial candidate appeared to confirm his intentions on Facebook yesterday afternoon. But late last night, that post was deleted, and a press release issued in the early hours of this morning spruiking a Senate bid instead.

Crikey contacted Mayne this morning, who said that a “staffer” had included erroneous reference to Northern Metro on Facebook, but that he was still potentially in the race, pending the Senate result and negotiations with Manningham Council, on which he serves as councillor for Heidi Ward.

Mayne will campaign heavily on a populist blow-up-the-pokies agenda that propelled South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon all the way to Canberra. The machines are a known scourge in Melbourne’s north, stripping millions of dollars out of addicts’ wallets and into government coffers.

On the deleted Facebook post, Mayne described the independent campaign as a “Nick Xenophon-style anti-pokies platform”, before urging followers to “get on board!”

The former Jeff Kennett press secretary has launched a bevy of failed political bids over his career including an ambitious run for the Mayor of Melbourne in 2001 and the Federal seat of Higgins in 2007. He was finally elected to Manningham Council in 2008.

He will need to snag an unlikely Steve Fielding-style preference run to land the sixth Senate spot in Victoria. In the more feasible state upper house, he will need a primary vote of around 5% enough to secure the fifth position if he can stay ahead of the micro-parties (and presuming he doesn’t finish last), to push him over the 16.7% quota required for a spot on the red leather.

Mayne is believed to have asked the Greens’ in-house psephologist Stephen Luntz and business partner Charles Richardson to cast an eye over both upper house possibilities, with Richardson settling on Northern Metropolitan at state level due to its relative fluidity compared to other regions. In both races, he will have to rely heavily on the Greens’ excess quota to get over the line.

In the Senate in Victoria, the sixth spot currently occupied by Fielding could open up if the Greens’ Richard Di Natale is able to win a seat from Labor’s Antony Thow in his own right.

Luntz said Mayne, who has also apparently been in discussions with the Greens’ state branch, would be hoping that in Victoria incumbent Greens’ Victorian upper house incumbent Greg Barber would garner around 19% of the vote — a “sweet spot” that would let the lanky activist hoard the party’s leftovers. Other party preferences, including the crisis-hit DLP, could also prove crucial.

Northern Metropolitan is currently occupied by three Labor MPs, one Liberal and one Green. However, Mayne will be hoping to dislodge the ALP’s third candidate Nathan Murphy, who is on tenterhooks as support for Labor in Melbourne’s north wanes. Murphy is a newcomer to the Legislative Council, appointed to a vacancy in March following the resignation of Theo Theophanous.

However, Luntz told Crikey that while the decision to re-enter the fray “wasn’t entirely crazy”, Mayne’s previous political performances “hadn’t exactly set the record books on fire.”

Mayne, who turns 41 today, has run twice at state level already. In 2006, he unsuccessfully as a candidate for the People Power group in Southern Metropolitan, before falling out with party director Vern Hughes over divisions between Mayne’s concern with pokies and Hughes’ affinity for the carers lobby. The party received just 1% of the upper house vote.

In late 1999, Mayne launched a revenge attack on Jeff Kennett in the state seat of Burwood at a byelection caused by his former boss’s resignation, emerging with a more impressive 6.63% of the vote — a result he will need to repeat to have any hope in November.

Crikey understands that powerbrokers inside Victorian branch are keen to swiftly secure a replacement for Tanner, whose resignation came as shock to party insiders.

The Socialist Left has a stranglehold on Tanner’s seat, controlling 11 of its 15 delegates to state conference. Insiders say that there is little standing in the way of Giles in terms of internal opposition.

At this stage, the only possible challenger is senior ACTU industrial officer Cath Bowtell, with some union sources suggesting she could have a claim to the seat as a compromise for missing out on the ACTU presidency. Bowtell is believed to reside in the Melbourne electorate.

Giles, who has been next in line for the inner city seat for several years, would face fierce competition from Greens candidate Adam Bandt, an increasingly visible presence around the electorate in recent weeks. The ALP currently holds the seat by just 4.7%, with a favourable redistribution unlikely to be complete before the election.

Support for the ALP in Melbourne has increasingly rested on Tanner’s broad shoulders, with his personal appeal likely to be worth around 3-4% at the ballot box.

Giles is the current chief-of-staff to Victorian Minister for Community Development Lily D’Ambrosio and formerly served as acting chief-of-staff in the office of Gavin Jennings. He was also a lawyer at Labor-aligned firm Holding Redlich.

Giles was a key player in the Tampa incident, acting for Liberty Victoria on behalf of stranded refugees as a solicitor.

In his resignation speech Tanner said that he had “no future employment” but was keen to secure a post-politics role in either business or academia.

“I feel as if I have walked in the footsteps of giants. It has been an extraordinary privilege and an extraordinary experience that I will remember.

“I am conscious that there will be a number of people in community who will feel let down by my choice.

“A lot of people have invested in me over the years…to those who feel let down, I apologise.

“I remind everyone in the Labor caucus that there is only one reason why any of us are here…the ALP,” Tanner said.

In the email quoted by Austin, Giles says that some Right-controlled seats had been “comprehensively stacked by conservative elements of the party”. Nothing new there — the SL chieftain has been making his feelings known on opposing factions’ irregularities for years. And, as Austin acknowledges, this latest missive wasn’t exactly new either — Giles sent it almost seven weeks ago, on April 6, well before the Socratous bombshell hit — making The Age‘s headline, “ALP factions fall out over branch stacking”, somewhat misleading given its string of stories published over the past seven days.

But it turns out Giles has been far from silent on the Socratous issue. In his regular update issued last Thursday before that night’s meeting of the ALP’s powerful administrative committee, Giles responded at length to Socratous’ confessions of under-the-table recruitment in Brendan O’Connor’s federal seat of Gorton.

While the Lindsay Tanner-aligned stalwart admits the latest allegations are “disappointing”, he condemns the specific charges made by his former factional sparring partner as lacking proof. He also reminds readers of previous investigations into Gorton conducted by party elder John Cain way back in 2004, and follow-up charges against Socratous, that were rejected by the Right.

Our concerns remain in relation to elements of the ALP in Gorton – and some other areas. But these matters must be considered on the basis of evidence, not assertion. In this regard Party Officers have considered the material available, and the State Secretary has requested Socratous’ co-operation with an investigation. He has refused, making any investigation problematic.

Although Giles says the ALP “has more to do”, the general tenor doesn’t exactly fit with The Age‘s attempts to kick the story along, breathlessly citing “new developments” that “threaten to undermine Labor’s prospects in this year’s federal and Victorian elections”. Indeed, it’s likely the general public couldn’t give a toss about reports of internecine wrangling among the unrepresentative swill that makes up Labor’s modern day membership base.

Last year, Giles was part of a posse of ALP officials who responded to branch stacking allegations in the wake of the Brimbank council saga, producing a cross-factional report that included a new suite of rules to crack down on rorts and open up the party. The gist of that report is repeated in Austin’s story. Again, nothing new.

Here are the pertinent paragraphs from last Thursday’s email:

Gorton allegations resurface

The past year has seen the Party take major steps forward in dealing with the membership abuses of the past. In particular, the Left led the establishment of a committee which took a broad look at these issues and made some recommendations to further crack down on branch-stacking – giving Victoria the toughest Rules framework in Australia – and find new ways to involve members. This committee wrote to all party members and invited them to raise any concerns regarding branch-stacking activities.

In this context it is disappointing, to say to the least, to read Costas Socratous’ allegations in The Age. All the more so when you consider that five years ago he was named in the report into branch-stacking in Gorton that was rejected by the Right.

Then Left and independent members of the Admin Committee did all in their power to see the Rules applied. And, more recently, we have seen the end of George Seitz’ parliamentary career following more revelations.  Our concerns remain in relation to elements of the ALP in Gorton – and some other areas. But these matters must be considered on the basis of evidence, not assertion. In this regard Party Officers have considered the material available, and the State Secretary has requested Socratous’ co-operation with an investigation. He has refused, making any investigation problematic.

Fundamentally, recent events are a timely reminder that as a Party we have much more to do. Taking action against abuses is one thing, but building a stronger, more outwards-focussed party culture quite another. We must continue to ensure that our Rules are applied to safeguard the integrity of our internal democracy – recognising, though, that this is a precondition to building a more democratic, growing and vibrant organisation and not an end itself.

In the UK, David Milliband has highlighted the electoral value of having vibrant local parties in calling for a revival of a culture of organising. And the US Democrats “Organising for America” project, grown from the organic grass-roots base that pushed Obama into office, shows the power of genuinely involving activists in the project of reshaping society. The success of Rainbow Labor and LEAN are pointers to the broader possibilities of empowering of members to lead. Let’s continue the conversation around opening up political space to activists as well as making it clear that branch-stacking has no place in Victorian Labor.