Independent and Un-aligned 2015 National Conference Party Reform Proposals

The following Rules amendments have been lodged today with a view to facilitating the implementation of Bill Shorten’s April 2014 reform proposals. They will be voted on tomorrow.

i) National Conference delegate election

Bill Shorten said:

“Future Labor Conferences to be a mix of people from and by Labor members and those elected by State Conferences.”

New rule 31b reads:

“A proportion of those delegates must be elected by local branch members and include delegates from outside metropolitan areas”

Preferred amendment to 31b:

“At least 50% of those delegates must be elected from and by local branch members and include delegates from outside metropolitan areas. The other delegates will be elected by State Conference.”

Alternative amendment:

“A number of those delegates at least equal to the number of Federal electorates in the State must be elected from and by all eligible local branch members and include delegates from outside the metropolitan areas.”

ii) Senate Pre-selections

Bill said:

“Give local Labor members a meaningful say in the selection of Senate Candidates”

Currently no rule has been placed in the new constitution to implement this vision.

Proposed new NPO :

“For Senate preselections, if as of July 24 2015 members who live in the State have less than 50% of the total votes, then the state branch must increase the proportion of votes for those members to at least 50%.”

iii) Increasing the weighting of local members votes in House of Reps Pre-selections

Bill Shorten said:

“… increase the weight given to the local members’ vote by 20% in every House of Representatives seat with more than 300 members” – In Victoria this would mean a 70:30 split in favour of local party members.”

This is included in this form in the new Draft Rules –

Rule 39 (d) reads:

“For House of Representative preselections, if as of July 24 2015 members who live in the electorate have less than 70% of the total votes, then for electorates with more than 300 members the state branch must increase the proportion of votes for those members by at least 20%”

Proposed amendment: In Rule 39 d) replace “300” with “100” in the phrase “with more than 300 members”

Alternative amendment: In Rule 39 d) replace “300” with “150” in the phrase “with more than 300 members”

iv) Federal Executive Intervention in Pre-selections

In April 2014 the Federal Leader said:

“From now on intervention by the National Executive shall be the exception not the rule.”

Proposed new NPO:

“National Executive intervention in pre-selections will be restricted to genuinely urgent and/or exceptional circumstances.”

Eric Dearricott

25 July 2015