Labor Right | |
---|---|
National Convenor(s) | Matt Thistlethwaite, Don Farrell and Raff Ciccone |
Student wing | Student Unity |
Ideology |
|
National affiliation | Australian Labor |
Colours | Red |
Seats in the House of Representatives | 42 / 151 |
Seats in the Senate | 11 / 76 |
Federal Caucus | 53 / 103 |
The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor or Labor Unity, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more supportive of free markets and can be more socially conservative than the Labor Left. The Labor Right is a broad alliance of various state factions and competes with the Labor Left faction.
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:
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An overriding stated theme of the more moderate wing of Labor governance is balance between progressive social change and generally more conservative economic management than the Labor Left 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 faction is most famous for its support of Third Way 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.
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 / TWU (Young Labor Progressive Unity), the SDA-aligned (Young Labor Unity) and the AWU / Shorten- aligned(Young Labor Centre Unity). The NSW Young Labor Right known as Young Centre Unity is the largest Labor Right youth faction.
Name | Parliamentary seat | Other positions | State/Territory | Sub-faction/union |
---|---|---|---|---|
Richard Marles | Member for Corio | Deputy Prime Minister Minister for Defence |
Victoria | TWU, 'Cons' |
Dr Jim Chalmers | Member for Rankin | Treasurer | Queensland | AWU |
Tony Burke | Member for Watson | Minister for Industrial Relations | New South Wales | SDA |
Mark Dreyfus KC | Member for Isaacs | Attorney–General | Victoria | AWU, 'Shorts' |
Bill Shorten | Member for Maribyrnong | Minister for Government Services Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme |
Victoria | AWU, 'Shorts' |
Don Farrell | Senator for South Australia | Special Minister of State Minister for Trade and Tourism |
South Australia | SDA |
Chris Bowen | Member for McMahon | Minister for Climate Change and Energy | New South Wales | |
Jason Clare | Member for Blaxland | Minister for Education | New South Wales | |
Michelle Rowland | Member for Greenway | Minister for Communications | New South Wales | |
Amanda Rishworth | Member for Kingston | Minister for Social Services | South Australia | SDA |
Steve Georganas | Member for Adelaide | South Australia | ||
Madeleine King | Member for Brand | Minister for Resources Minister for Northern Australia |
Western Australia | |
Shayne Neumann | Member for Blair | Chair of Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Chair of Standing Committee on Procedure |
Queensland | ASU |
Clare O'Neil | Member for Hotham | Minister for Home Affairs Minister for Cyber Security |
Victoria | NUW |
Matt Keogh | Member for Burt | Minister for Veterans' Affairs Minister for Defence Personnel |
Western Australia | AWU |
Matt Thistlethwaite | Member for Kingsford Smith | Assistant Minister for Defence Assistant Minister for Veterans' Affairs Assistant Minister for the Republic |
New South Wales | AWU |
Tim Watts | Member for Gellibrand | Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs | Victoria | 'Cons' |
Glenn Sterle‡ | Senator for Western Australia | Chair of Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee Deputy Chair of Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee |
Western Australia | TWU |
Emma McBride | Member for Dobell | Assistant Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Assistant Minister for Rural and Regional Health |
New South Wales | |
Justine Elliot | Member for Richmond | Assistant Minister for Social Services Assistant Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence |
New South Wales | |
Alison Byrnes | Member for Cunningham | New South Wales | ||
Ed Husic | Member for Chifley | Minister for Industry and Science | New South Wales | CEPU (CWU) |
Deborah O'Neill | Senator for New South Wales | Chair of Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services Deputy Chair of Select Committee on Work and Care Deputy Chair of Standing Committee of Privileges |
New South Wales | SDA |
Helen Polley | Senator for Tasmania | Chair of Parliamentary Joint Committee on Law Enforcement | Tasmania | AWU, SDA |
Rob Mitchell | Member for McEwen | Chair of Committee of Privileges and Members' Interests Chair of House Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Resources |
Victoria | 'Cons' |
Catryna Bilyk | Senator for Tasmania | Chair of the Senate Standing Committee of Senators' Interests | Tasmania | ASU, TWU |
Anthony Chisholm | Senator for Queensland | Assistant Minister for Education Assistant Minister for Regional Development |
Queensland | AWU |
Peter Khalil | Member for Wills | Victoria | AWU, "Shorts" | |
Milton Dick | Member for Oxley | Speaker of the House of Representatives Chair of Joint Committee on the Broadcasting of Parliamentary Proceedings Chair of Selection Committee Chair of Standing Committee on Appropriations and Administration |
Queensland | AWU |
Matt Burnell | Member for Spence | South Australia | TWU | |
Meryl Swanson | Member for Paterson | Chair of Standing Committee on Agriculture | New South Wales | |
Luke Gosling | Member for Solomon | Chair of Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport | Northern Territory | SDA |
David Smith | Member for Bean | Government Whip | Australian Capital Territory | Professionals Australia |
Raff Ciccone | Senator for Victoria | Deputy Government Whip in the Senate Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee Deputy Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee Deputy Chair of Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills |
Victoria | SDA “Shoppies” |
Dr Daniel Mulino | Member for Fraser | Chair of Standing Committee on Economics | Victoria | SDA “Shoppies” |
Josh Burns | Member for Macnamara | Chair of Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights | Victoria | 'Cons' |
Anika Wells | Member for Lilley | Minister for Aged Care Minister for Sport |
Queensland | AWU |
Marielle Smith | Senator for South Australia | Chair of Community Affairs Legislation Committee Deputy Chair of Community Affairs References Committee |
South Australia | SDA |
Tony Sheldon | Senator for New South Wales | Chair of Education and Employment Legislation Committee Deputy Chair of Education and Employment References Committee |
New South Wales | TWU |
Dr Mike Freelander | Member for Macarthur | Chair of Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Sport | New South Wales | |
Cassandra Fernando | Member for Holt | Victoria | SDA | |
Jana Stewart | Senator for Victoria | Victoria | TWU, 'Cons' | |
Sam Rae | Member for Hawke | Victoria | TWU, 'Cons' | |
Varun Ghosh | Senator for West Australia | Western Australia | ||
Andrew Charlton | Member for Parramatta | New South Wales | ||
Sally Sitou | Member for Reid | New South Wales | ||
Kristy McBain | Member for Eden-Monaro | New South Wales | ||
Dan Repacholi | Member for Hunter | New South Wales | ||
Joanne Ryan | Member for Lalor | Chief Government Whip | Victoria | |
Michelle Ananda-Rajah | Member for Higgins | Victoria | ||
Tania Lawrence | Member for Hasluck | Western Australia | ||
Sam Lim | Member for Tangney | Western Australia | ||
Gordon Reid | Member for Robertson | New South Wales |
‡ Sterle was formerly a member of the now-defunct Centre Left.
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