ALP Governance Practices/Structure - Educational Post.
Typical Composition Annual State Conference
At a recent inaugural meeting of an ALP branch "Reform Forum" to discuss, examine and plan action to progress democratisation of the ALP I was unsurprised at the lack of knowledge on the subject of ALP structural/governance processes evident among the small group of seasoned long term ALP members. It became more and more obvious as discussions progressed that there was at best only a superficial understanding of ALP Executive governance structure and processes.
During discussions I made a statement to the effect that almost all effective reform motions had been voted down or stymied at peak conference by ruling factions - there has not been any successful substantial democratic reform of ALP governance passed by peak conference over the last 10 or 15 years.
The statement was met with a indignant dissent from an experienced R&F member currently employed as an electoral support officer - he refuted my claim, stating the ALP had embraced many significant reforms of late, such as pre-selection/leadership ballots.
His stance caused me to do a double take.
There was obviously a different understanding held by most present at the Forum as to what constituted significant democratic reform.
Easily bypassed, or overturned 'window dressing' type pre-selection and leadership selection reforms as recently conceded to R&F are both welcome and important to the public image of the ALP; but those reforms do not go any way in addressing the embedded fundamental anti-democratic management practices now so deeply ensconced in ALP internal governance.
I suggested that before we started making proposals/plans for democratic reform we should first educate ourselves on the subject to achieve a better understanding of the issues that are at the seat undemocratic practices.
A discussion ensued as to why so few people understood the issues - even though 'the rules' and 'platform' were readily available and many had worked actively as supporters of the ALP for many years.
My analysis is that merely reading and 'working' with the rules provides little understanding of the operation of overall ALP governance processes - there is a dearth of detailed interconnecting structural/functional information available.
We must not only understand how the ruling factions control the ALP, but also why/how so many attempts at reform have been thwarted.
With that in mind, this post is an attempt to build a resource to assist with that education.
I have produced and published the below illustrations and diagrams with relevant rules/notes to assist a broader understanding of how ALP governance functions in practice.
Resources:
What’s Good about the current arrangement:
Cements in place a generally beneficial working relationship between the ALP and the Union industrial movement,
Locks in place a reliable source of support funds from union affiliation fees (Est. $4.7Mil. annually),
Enables mutually beneficial input from industrial unions to assist development and protection, enhancement of worker/industry supportive ALP policies,
Provides union/unionist support of ALP candidates during elections,
Provides training/supporter/resource base and career progression path for aspiring ALP politicians.
What’s Bad about the current arrangement:
Union appointed conference delegates are not democratically appointed,
Awards 50% (controlling) voting strength to union delegates representing only 17% of eligible workforce with mere 0.4% ALP membership rate,
An open door to insidious corporate infiltration of the ALP through bribes, graft, patronage and promise of sinecures to union execs,
Allows union execs to undemocratically appoint/dismiss union delegates to ALP conference,
Facilitates collusion between union based factions to arbitrarily manipulate voting outcomes at conference,
Provides opportunity for self serving collusion/corruption between union leaders and corporate vested interests at the detriment of R&F,
Facilitates deals and trades between factions to pass/reject rules that may be contrary to ALP/R&F best interests,
Assists ongoing stacking of party vacancies with favoured factionally aligned officers,
Conflict of interest to the ALP - both the governor and administrator of the affiliation scheme.
Rewards union management for misrepresentation/manipulation of union membership numbers to provide increased conference representation. ALP also financially benefits from inflated union membership claims – more union members= more affiliation fees received.
Provides no incentive for Union leaders to encourage, promote or recruit union rank and file to take up ALP membership;
Allows union management to effectively isolate/exclude unfavoured/unaligned union R&F from ALP governance conferences;
Facilitates avenue for (corrupt?) union execs to deliver employer 'friendly' undertakings without reference to R&F,
Effectively isolates appointed union 'delegates to conference' from accountability to union R&F for decisions taken/voting actions at peak conference,
Provides motivation to preserve unfair/undemocratic rules and practices – ineffective and ‘loose’ rules are guarded from reform by groups/factions that hold power through such rule deficiencies
Affiliation fees constitute a financial disincentive for unions executives to affiliate with the ALP;
Excludes R&F unionists in unaffiliated unions (Est. 900,000 potential ALP members) from representation/participation in ALP governance.
Has effectively created a division in the union movement; unilateral union executive decision not to affiliate with the ALP has created two classes of union members in regards to ALP governance : – affiliated unionists who are allocated a quota of voting delegates to conference – non affiliated unionists have no access to ALP conference There is no path under the rules for 900,000 non affiliated R&F unionists to achieve equivalent representation at conference. See Blog article: Reorganisation of Trade Union/ALP Relations
To be continued......
....this post will be progressively updated as new charts/information are produced.
