JUST ANNOUNCED: CESAR MELHAM HAS RESIGNED FROM HIS VICTORIAN LABOR GOVERNMENT POSIITION AS WHIP

Brigid O'Carroll Walsh

7 June at 08:32 ·  

So knives are sharpening for Cesar Melhem. It is all very well charging union leaders one at a time. This means that the over-top very bad guys and gals get caught and the dumb ones (no names mentioned) get caught too. The ones with some crafty brains and impeccable political connections, not only with the ALP, survive and survive and survive. These men (and almost all are men) hide behind sham democratic procedures that pass for union 'elections'. What actually happens is that fiefdoms are created which, at the top, mean a job for life. One simple, simple question. If the President of the USA is only allowed to govern for eight consecutive years, why is a similar term not appropriate for union leaders in Australia? You can slam union corruption all you like but when the length of term in office is ignored, then almost nothing is done to prevent history from repeating itself. The longer a union leader (and this can apply to CEOs anywhere) is in office at the top of the tree, the greater the opportunity for corrupt and self-serving practices to emerge. Among these corrupt and self-serving practices are: cooking the books; favouritism and nepotism; including others in the leaders' nefarious practices, altering union rules to benefit the incumbency of the leader. The longer a union leader is in power the greater the opportunity and access to do all these things. It is easier then for the leader to appoint the successor - your mistress's son or the person who has been made guilty by collusion with you, so he or she won't spill the beans. Not all unions are run in such a way - but I can think of unions on the Labor right where this happening right now. And who are the beneficiaries of all these goings on? Not the unions' members, that's for sure. Worse still, there are occasions when the employers benefit from this sort of union leadership and unions' members are diddled and left without energetic representation.

Knives sharpen for Cesar

The political future of state government MP Cesar Melhem hangs in the balance, with support among colleagues wavering and Premier Daniel Andrews not ruling out standing him down amid claims of union corruption.

THEAGE.COM.AU

Australian Labor Party Conference 2011 - Sydney

Conference Agenda HERE.

Go here to access the National Conference website

from the following:

The Australian 

(Rupert Murdoch's jewel in the crown of his Australian assets)

Fairfax Press

Australian Financial Review

(out behind its paywall for the National Conference it would seem)

Michelle Gratton on video and in print

Michelle is arguably "the dean" of Australian journalists.

Her view is much respected and is usually a reasonable comment.

The Australian Labor Party  (otherwise known as ALP or Labor) Conference

begins to-morrow in Sydney and runs over Saturday and Sunday.

Labor is the party of government in Australia at this time.

Labor, traditionally, runs a tight ship.

People toe the party line.

In Parliament, there is no crossing the floor to vote with the other side.

For those elected to parliament, 

their only way to have a say is in Caucus

or at official Conferences.

Once the vote is taken, people are expected to to the party line.

Members of Cabinet have, most particularly, to toe the line.

This Conference will be interesting.

There is, what appears to be, a dominant view

on two controversial topics:

homosexual marriage and uranium sales to India.

At this Conference, two significant Ministers 

(Wong on homosexual marriage, Conroy on uranium))

do not side with the Prime Minister. (more on that in another post!)

The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,

is on the negative side for the first topic

and on the affirmative side to the latter topic.

If she is defeated on either of these ,

the Australian media will have a field day.

The question that is then asked is:

Will compromise motions be put forward

to save face for the Prime Minister?

There are factions - mainly two, the Right and the Left.

There used to be a Centre but I'm not sure it exists anymore.

Am not aware of any members of parliament who are unaligned.

Within the major factions there are factional sub-sets.

This means that there is a certain fluidity on some matters.

It is worth noting that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard,

began her political career as a member of the Left faction.

She has been installed as Prime Minister by the Right faction,

most notably by the Australian Workers Union, a significant right-wing union

with a significant industrial history.

{Don't worry if you don't understand the last two sentences.

Few Australians understand this either - but Miss Eagle does}

So there will be some wait and see at this Conference.

Go here to keep up to date with proceedings through Live Chat.

You can register now.

I have posted up above the social media provisions.

I have tried to give a general outline here in a simple and succinct manner.

I hope that people from overseas might like to have a look

and be involved with discussion of the operations of one

of the world's oldest Labor parties

which currently is running the most successful economy in the world.