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Articles on ALP reform

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John Faulkner says factions, affiliates or interest groups binding parliamentarians in caucus votes or ballots must be banned. AAP/Paul Miller

Cut union representation in Labor conferences: Faulkner

Labor elder John Faulkner has called for a radical overhaul of the party’s structure that would drastically reduce union representation at its state conferences. Faulkner, who has been a continuing voice…
It seems things are not yet bad enough in the Labor Party to make significant reform, such as John Faulkner’s proposed changes to preselection, likely. AAP/Daniel Munoz

Faulkner’s reforms will fail as NSW Labor refuses to change

Labor senator John Faulkner does not anticipate that his moves to reform the party’s preselection processes will succeed at this weekend’s NSW State Conference. Faulkner is hoping to have the rules changed…
In a new book, former Labor leader Mark Latham and other prominent party figures attempt to diagnose the party’s malaise. AAP/Alan Porritt

Book review: Not Dead Yet – What Future for Labor?

It is a sign of Labor’s crisis that Mark Latham, the party’s former parliamentary leader, has been re-admitted to polite centre-Left company. For his book Not Dead Yet: What Future for Labor?, Latham has…
Amidst the celebrations of ‘democracy’, the ALP leadership election - which gave rise to Bill Shorten as Labor leader - exposed a number of flaws in the new process. AAP/Lukas Coch

All that glitters was not necessarily gold in Labor’s leadership poll

New Labor leader Bill Shorten has vowed to continue on the path of party reform, but the latest ALP leadership battle failed to expose all the dangers of the new system. Not only is there the possibility…
Bill Shorten is the new ALP leader, after an election contest where the votes of the rank and file party members were included for the first time. AAP/Lukas Coch

Shorten wins, but the ALP plays it safe with democracy

So the election between two middle-aged, middle class, white men with broadly shared policy agendas is over. In this case, it is not the federal election between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott, but the month-long…
New Zealand’s new Labour leader David Cunliffe has been elected in a process involving direct voting by the party membership. NZN/Laura McQuillan

Albo and Shorten should look to New Zealand for primary guidance

While Australia’s Labor Party is digesting a significant electoral defeat, the New Zealand Labour Party, in opposition since 2008, has gone through another leadership change and is positioning itself to…
Now that it is all said and done, what did we learn about Australian politics in the 2013 federal election campaign? AAP/Alan Porritt

Virtue and vexation: the policy vacuum in the 2013 election

I have been around for a long time and involved in some terrible campaigns, but the policy vacuum in 2013 was the worst I can recall. There was no serious debate on issues, whether simple or complex, and…
ICAC has found Eddie Obeid (pictured at an earlier hearing), his son Moses and former NSW mining minister Ian Macdonald engaged in corrupt conduct. AAP Image/Paul Miller

ICAC calls for criminal charges against NSW ALP kingmakers: the experts respond

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) today found NSW Labor powerbrokers Ian Macdonald and Eddie Obeid, and his son Moses Obeid, engaged in corrupt conduct and has recommended criminal…
Prime minister Kevin Rudd’s attempts to reconstruct the ALP may fall flat if Victorian preselection battles in Hotham and Lalor are any guide. AAP/Tara Ravens

Rudd reforms and preselection battles: the more things change…

The old saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same” is particularly appropriate when describing the Australian Labor Party at the moment. Upon being returned to the federal parliamentary…
Kevin Rudd is back as prime minister. But can he change party rules to prevent leaders being ousted as he was in 2010? AAP/Dan Peled

Labor in vain: will the Rudd party reforms work?

Today, a specially convened meeting of the Labor caucus will decide on proposed changes to how the party selects its parliamentary leader. The politics of leadership in Australia have been described as…
Treasurer Chris Bowen needs voters to put a 1 next to his party on the ballot in the upcoming election. Will his new book help win the political argument? AAP/Dean Lewins

Chris Bowen’s plan to win hearts and minds and save Labor

Treasurer Chris Bowen’s new blueprint for Labor party reform Hearts and Minds gives us the easy listening version of Paul Keating, just as Tony Abbott offers us the same for John Howard. The book provides…
Do Kevin Rudd’s proposed reforms to the ALP expose the failings of Australia’s Westminster system of government? AAP

Rudd’s party reforms highlight Westminster woes

Prime minister Kevin Rudd’s proposal to prevent the ALP caucus from deposing a sitting prime minister has raised the hoary issue of the Westminster system. The dominant view among pundits is that under…

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