Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has called a special caucus meeting for Monday, July 22 to seek agreement on a radical overhaul of the process for the election of the ALP parliamentary leader, he announced this afternoon.
Under the process proposed by Rudd, with support from the Labor leadership team, the ALP parliamentary leader would be elected jointly by the ALP membership and caucus, with each having 50% of the vote.
A victorious Labor prime minister would also be fireproofed against leadership spills for the duration of a parliamentary term unless 75% of caucus decided they had brought the party into disrepute, effectively ruling out the circumstances that led to the removal of both Rudd and Julia Gillard, as well as repeated leadership instability during Gillard’s term.
The election process, which would automatically take place after an unsuccessful election or if a leader resigned or called a spill, would take 30 days, with ALP members eligible on the same basis as party voting for the ALP national president. Other leadership positions — the deputy leadership and the Senate leadership team — would continue to be elected solely by caucus, which would also have restored to it the right to select the front bench.
The mechanism proposed by Rudd differs from that of UK Labour, where MPs, party rank-and-file and party-affiliated organisations such as trade unions each have a one-third proportion of the leadership vote.
If caucus does not support the reforms, Rudd will call a special party meeting, but caucus sources say the proposals are likely to be endorsed.
Rudd had flagged last week, when announcing federal intervention in New South Wales, he would have more to say on ALP reform. But the proposal to overhaul the leadership ballot process was a surprise. In opening up the leadership ballot to rank-and-file members, Rudd can appear a democratic party reformer as well as reducing the chances of future leaders being removed in the way he was or undermined in the manner he relentlessly undermined Gillard.
It also serves to further distance Rudd from the unpopular aspects of the Labor brand, such as perceptions of control by factional powerbrokers and the behind-the-scenes influence of faceless men.
The opposition is likely to argue the announcement is further evidence the government is internally focused, but Rudd clearly has a triangulation strategy of being seen not merely to oppose Tony Abbott but the business-as-usual politics of the ALP, knowing full well the latter is even more unpopular with voters than the former. It is a strategy reminiscent of Peter Beattie’s post-Shepherdson inquiry strategy of virtually campaigning against his own as an agent of change and a new broom.
I’m a big fan of these planned reforms. I believe that the 50/50 power to the ALP members will serve to reduce the power of factional powerbrokers. I am not naive, I know that this will not solve everything, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.
I also think this is a smart move by Rudd politically. People are unhappy with the ALP and he is visibly taking steps to fix it up.
Rudd has come in and unleashed a barrage of bouncers, and Abbott is being forced onto the back foot here. How he responds remains to be seen. It could very well decide the election.
Rudd has always been a clever and astute political animal.
Here we see him at his best.
More to come coloured by a labors election victory. Rudd is systematically addressing and neutralising all of the issues which Tony Abbott can use to attack labor.
way to go Rudd, just Hope you are not still the micromanaging megalomaniac previously exhibited.
Many of us are being spun silly by Labor government media releases. I am lucky because my attitude to Labor Federal, State, and Local is based on my first hand experience. I understand how they react to people power. It is a shame it takes so long for our political allsorts to change their public positions on matters of governance. Perhaps that is because they have forgotten they are in place to exercise their influence to put into practice what their constituents want. The Liberal fight to take back the seat of Robertson has been full on for almost a year. While money makes that possible we get that. I do expect voters to start planing to exercise their votes below the line. For change and change again until our elected representatives start respecting their constituents and putting us and our wishes and needs before those of the two parties not much preferred. Edward James
The moment of catharsis the ALP has been waiting for since Keating bit the dust? If Kev manages to smash the union domination and return the party to its base, then his contribution to our future is greater than any leader – ALP or Liberal – since 1996. We need a strong progressive party to stop the Liberals from decaying into a neoconservative rump.
Viva el Kevis!
Autocratic Kev is back! My way or the highway. Branch stackers reinvigorated with new purpose and lease of life. Just call the real election Kev!