THE Transport Workers Union boss, Tony Sheldon, has hit back at elements of the Left trying to stymie his bid for the ALP national presidency, saying he backs a call to give the new president real power to represent the members.
Mr Sheldon is the Right faction's leading candidate for the presidency, which is being decided by a ballot of the ALP membership and announced at the national conference in the first week of December.
His stiffest challenge is from the Left's leading candidate, Jenny McAllister.
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The Left is pushing for the party to adopt a raft of reforms at the conference, which were recommended in the post-election review conducted by party elders Steve Bracks, Bob Carr and John Faulkner.
The review found unless the membership was given a greater say in the party, the ALP membership would continue to atrophy.
Two of the key recommendations were to discard the system of having three token national presidents, each of whom serve a year, and have one president for three years with a vote on the ALP national executive. This would give the president real power and make them an effective representative of the rank-and-file.
The Left candidates support the reforms, while the Right is opposed. When the Left group, known as Labor Renewal, quizzed all the candidates on their attitude towards various reforms, Mr Sheldon declined to endorse empowering the president.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/union-boss-strikes-back-at-left-saying-he-supp...
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