Analysis: With its election to government, Labor's factional roots are feeding and protecting Anthony Albanese. Who are the people who wield power behind the scenes? | jamesmassola
have in the modern federal parliamentary Labor Party.
After all, it’s the factional system that decides who gets to belong to the 30 member ministry that comprises 14 Left MPs and 16 Right MPs. And while the prime minister assigns portfolios, it’s factional conveners that get to hand out prized chairmanships of parliamentary committees, for example.
As one Left MP, who asked not be named, puts it: “The most influential are Butler and Wong by a country mile, they are closest to Albo and they can speak truth to power”. A third Left faction MP sums up their roles like this: “Pat and Andrew have had Albo’s back for a while as former conveners of the faction, Tim is the party machine guy on the national executive and Murray is, basically, Queensland”.
“If she says something or goes a certain way, people may go with her on certain issues. She has influence around the joint,” the first Left faction MP says. The Right faction is run differently to the Left – for example, the Left chooses its 14 frontbenchers from a national list of all its MPs, whereas the Right hands out its 16 frontbench spots according to a state-based formula – and its influence is distributed differently across the country.
He also has the loyalty of MPs aligned to the Shoppies in the big states, like NSW Senator Deb O’Neill and Victorians Raff Ciccone, Cassandra Fernando and Daniel Mulino and most of all, he has Albanese’s ear. Now the deputy prime minister, defence minister and the most senior member of the Victorian Right, Marles’ influence has grown over the last three years and with the election of a Labor government.
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