Labor Right

The Labor Right, also known as Labor Unity, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that tends to be more socially conservative and economically liberal. The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.

Labor Right
Leader	Kaila Murnain[1][2][3]
Student wing	Student Unity
Ideology	Third Way[4] Social liberalism Economic liberalism
Political position	Centre to centre-left[5]
National affiliation	Australian Labor Party
Colours	Red
Seats in the House of Representatives	31 / 151
Seats in the Senate	12 / 76
Federal Caucus	44 / 94
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

State branches

Factional power usually finds expression in the percentage vote of aligned delegates at party conferences. The power of the Labor Right varies from state to state, but it usually relies on certain trade unions, such as the Australian Workers' Union (AWU), Transport Workers Union (TWU), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) and the Health Services Union (HSU). These unions send delegates to the conference, with delegates usually coming from the membership, the administration of the union or local branches covered by their activists.

State-based factions (national sub-factions) which make up Labor Right include:

New South Wales

• Centre Unity.

Queensland

• Labor Forum (dominated by the AWU).[6]

Australian Capital Territory[7]

• Centre Coalition.

Victoria

• Labor Centre Unity (The Shorts: consisting of branch members and unions aligned with Bill Shorten, in particular the Australian Workers Union).[8]
• Labor Unity (The Cons: consisting largely of Branch Members aligned to and supporters of Labor Deputy Leader Richard Marles and former Senator Stephen Conroy, in particular the Transport Workers Union).
• Moderate Labor (Mods: defectors from the Shoppies; aligned with Adem Somyurek; allegedly part of a grouping called 'Centre Unity').[8]
• Shoppies (SDA: also known as Labor Unity, largely union-based).

Western Australia

• Progressive Labor (Consists of TWU, SDA, AWU, MUA and CFMEU) [9][10] The Progressive Labor faction was thought of as dissolved in 2019 due to infighting,[11]however it still exists as a faction within the Western Australia Labor party, with WA Labor Unity acting more as a sub-faction rather than a faction in of itself.
• WA Labor Unity (TWU, SDA, AWU).

Northern Territory

• Labor Unity.

South Australia

• Labor Unity (dominated by the SDA).[12]

Tasmania

• Labor Unity.

Political views

An overriding stated theme of the more moderate wing of Labor governance is balance between progressive social change and conservative economic management as the pathway to community development and growth.

Many Roman Catholics have been prominent and influential in the Labor Party, both inside and outside the auspices of the Labor Right faction. Their influence had been criticised by many older Labor socialists and Protestant conservatives for being beholden to religious authority. However, this sentiment has decreased since the 1970s with the erosion of religious sectarianism in Australian politics.

The Labor Right views itself as the more mainstream and fiscally responsible faction within Labor. The faction is most famous for its support of Third Way economic policies over Labor's traditional early twentieth century social democratic policies, such as the economic rationalist policies of the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating governments, including floating the Australian dollar in December 1983, reductions in trade tariffs, taxation reforms such as the introduction of dividend imputation to eliminate double-taxation of dividends and the lowering of the top marginal income tax rate from 60% in 1983 to 47% in 1996, changing from centralised wage-fixing to enterprise bargaining, the privatisation of Qantas and Commonwealth Bank, making the Reserve Bank of Australia independent, and deregulating the banking system.

Youth Wing

While the senior faction is broken into various state- and union-based groupings the Young Labor Right is organised around the various parliamentarian factional leaders and power brokers. The Victorian Young Labor Right is currently divided between the Conroy aligned (Young Labor Unity), the SDA (Victorian Labor Students), AWU (Young Labor Centre Unity) and Moderate aligned grouping, and the NUW (Young Labor Action). The NSW Young Labor Right known as Young Centre Unity is the largest Labor Right youth faction.

Federal Members of the Labor Right

Name	Parliamentary seat	Other positions	State/Territory	Sub-faction/union
Richard Marles[13]	Member for Corio	Deputy Leader of the Opposition Shadow Minister for Defence	Victoria	'Cons', TWU
Kristina Keneally[14]	Senator for New South Wales	Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Shadow Home Minister Former Premier of New South Wales	NSW
Dr Jim Chalmers[13]	Member for Rankin	Shadow Treasurer	Queensland	AWU
Tony Burke[13]	Member for Watson	Manager of Opposition Business in the House Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations	NSW	SDA
Mark Dreyfus QC[13]	Member for Isaacs	Shadow Attorney-General	Victoria	'Shorts', AWU
Bill Shorten[15]	Member for Maribyrnong	Shadow Minister for the NDIS Former Leader of the ALP	Victoria	'Shorts', AWU
Don Farrell[16]	Senator for South Australia	Shadow Special Minister of State Former Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate	SA	SDA
Chris Bowen[13]	Member for McMahon	Shadow Minister for Health Former Treasurer	NSW
Joel Fitzgibbon[16]	Member for Hunter	Shadow Minister for Agriculture Former Minister for Defence, former Chief Whip	NSW
Jason Clare[16]	Member for Blaxland	Shadow Minister for Housing and Homelessness Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government	NSW
Michelle Rowland[17]	Member for Greenway	Shadow Minister for Communications	NSW
Amanda Rishworth[17]	Member for Kingston	Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education Shadow Minister for Youth	SA	SDA
Madeleine King[18]	Member for Brand	Shadow Minister for Trade	WA
Shayne Neumann[16]	Member for Blair	Member of the Shadow Outer Ministry Former member of the Shadow Cabinet	Queensland	ASU
Clare O'Neil[15]	Member for Hotham	Member of the Shadow Outer Ministry	Victoria	NUW
Matt Keogh[18]	Member for Burt	Member of the Shadow Outer Ministry	WA	AWU
Matt Thistlethwaite[19][20]	Member for Kingsford Smith	Shadow parliamentary secretary Former General Secretary of the NSW Labor Party	NSW	AWU
Tim Watts[21][22]	Member for Gellibrand	Shadow parliamentary secretary	Victoria	'Cons'
Kimberley Kitching[15]	Senator for Victoria	Shadow parliamentary secretary	Victoria	'Shorts', HWU
Glenn Sterle^‡[18]	Senator for Western Australia	Shadow parliamentary secretary	WA	TWU
Emma McBride	Member for Dobell	Shadow parliamentary secretary	NSW
Chris Hayes	Member for Fowler	Chief Opposition Whip	NSW	AWU
Justine Elliot	Member for Richmond	Former member of the Outer Ministry	NSW
Sharon Bird	Member for Cunningham	Former member of the Outer Ministry	NSW
Ed Husic	Member for Chifley	Former member of the Shadow Outer Ministry	NSW	CEPU (CWU)
Anthony Byrne	Member for Holt	Former parliamentary secretary Deputy Chair and former Chair of the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security	Victoria
Deborah O'Neill	Senator for New South Wales	Former shadow parliamentary secretary	NSW	SDA
Helen Polley	Senator for Tasmania	Former shadow parliamentary secretary	Tasmania	AWU, SDA
Rob Mitchell	Member for McEwen	Former Whip	Victoria	'Cons'
Alex Gallacher	Senator for South Australia	Co-Chair of the Senate Standing Committees on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade	SA	TWU
Catryna Bilyk	Senator for Tasmania	Chair of the Senate Standing Committee of Senators' Interests	Tasmania	ASU, SDA
Anthony Chisholm	Senator for Queensland	Former Secretary of the Queensland Labor Party	Queensland	AWU
Milton Dick	Member for Oxley	Former Secretary of the Queensland Labor Party	Queensland	AWU
Nick Champion	Member for Wakefield		SA	SDA
Meryl Swanson	Member for Paterson		NSW
Luke Gosling	Member for Solomon		NT	SDA
David Smith	Member for Bean		ACT	Professionals Australia
Raff Ciccone	Senator for Victoria		Victoria	SDA
Dr Daniel Mulino	Member for Fraser		Victoria	SDA
Josh Burns	Member for Macnamara		Victoria	'Cons'
Anika Wells	Member for Lilley		Queensland	AWU
Marielle Smith	Senator for South Australia		SA	SDA
Tony Sheldon	Senator for New South Wales		NSW	TWU
Dr Mike Freelander	Member for Macarthur		NSW

‡ Sterle was formerly a member of the now-defunct Centre Left.

See also

• Category: Labor Right politicians, current and former parliamentary members of the Labor Right
• New Democrats (centrist faction in the Democratic Party of the United States)
• Blue Dogs (conservative faction in the Democratic Party of the United States)
• Progress (organisation associated with the Labour Party (UK))

References

1. Bramston, Troy. "Albo picks up the pieces". The Australian. News Corp. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
2. Bramston, Troy. "Factional warfare creates Right old mess in search for a leader with a winning chance". The Australian. News Corp. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
3. Bramston, Troy (10 January 2017). "New Labor women reckon they have the ideas — not just the numbers". The Australian. News Corp Australia. Retrieved 8 December 2017.
4. Jingjing Huo (2009). Third Way Reforms: Social Democracy After the Golden Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 79. ISBN 978-0-521-51843-7.
5. Brown, Greg (8 October 2018). "Kimberley Kitching caters for Labor's conservative core". The Australian.
6. "Left takes over Queensland Labor in historic shift". The Australia. 31 July 2014.
7. "Contest in ACT comes down to the ALP machine versus genuine locals". Crikey. 9 April 2010.
8. Rundle), Guy (18 July 2018). "The instability of Labor's latest factional stability deal". Crikey.
9. Butterly, Nick; Delalande, Joanna. "WA Labor's Progressive faction fractures". PressReader. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
10. "Historic union pact formed to take on the Left". The West Australian. 1 April 2017. Retrieved 26 May 2019.
11. Butterly, Nick. "WA Labor's Progressive faction has split after spectacular infighting leaving Left faction dominant". The West Australian. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
12. "Liberals' donations double Labor Party's ahead of SA election". ABC. 11 August 2017.
13. "The 12 Labor figures who will do the heavy lifting in government". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
14. Martin, Sarah (28 May 2019). "Kristina Keneally frontbench position set to spark Labor factional brawl". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
15. Probyn, Andrew. "The strain within Labor's Left and Right bubbles over as the party wrestles over its future". ABC News. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
16. Tewksbury, Marc. "Labor MP Jason Clare dismisses Otis group". news.com.au. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
17. "Labor's new-look shadow ministry". SBS News. 30 May 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
18. Hondros, Nathan. "WA Labor MPs named as part of pro-coal, right-wing 'Otis Group'". WAtoday. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
19. "Shorten stands by Gillard as leader". 9news.com.au. 26 June 2013. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
20. Chan, Gabrielle (25 July 2015). "Bill Shorten wins freedom to use boat turnbacks, but leadership split on issue". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
21. "Leaked texts show Somyurek's influence among federal Labor ranks". skynews.com.au. 15 June 2020. Retrieved 7 November 2020.
22. Ilanbey, Sumeyya (28 January 2020). "Tensions between Labor's Right and Left factions at boiling point". theage.com.au. Retrieved 7 November 2020.

Further reading

• Cumming, Fia (1991) Mates : five champions of the Labor right. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-021-4. Library catalogue summary: Paul Keating, Graham Richardson, Laurie Brereton, Bob Carr and Leo McLeay recount events which shaped the Australian labour movement from the 1960s to the 1980s.
• Richardson, G (1994) Whatever It Takes, Bantam Books, Moorebank, NSW. Library catalogue summary: Graham Richardson recounts his career and outlines the philosophy and operation of the NSW and National Labor Right during his time in the ALP.