Branch stacking is a term used in Australian politics to describe the act of recruiting or signing up members for a local branch of a political party for the principal purpose of influencing the outcome of internal preselection of candidates for public office, or of inordinately influencing the party's policy.
Allegations of such practices have become controversial in Australia after several inquiries or contests which received mainstream media attention. Most political parties now have clauses in their constitutions to allow "head office" intervention to resolve alleged stacking or other allegations of fraud, with penalties for those who engage in it. Branch stacking itself is legal under Australian law since it is an internal party matter, but some activities like providing false information to the Australian Electoral Commission, such as the numbers of members, can be prosecuted as fraud.
There are several ways that branch stacking may influence the way in which decisions are made within political parties. For example, a party faction may enrol many members who belong to the faction or agree to vote in the manner instructed by the faction's leaders.
In the Australian Labor Party (ALP), besides membership stacking, another technique is to take advantage of the favoured position of unions within the party, especially the significant vote they have at ALP state and national conferences, which, in turn, determine party policy and elects internal office holders and the membership of committees. The committees may, in turn, determine preselections for party candidates at elections. The number of members in a union determines the number of delegates to the conferences to which it is entitled, which offers an opportunity for stacking to take place at the union level, [1] which then flows through to other organs of the ALP. Another avenue of stacking is the Young Labor wing of the ALP, which also sends delegates to ALP conferences, [2] and is entitled to a seat on the ALP National Executive.
Party factions and the so-called "numbers men" try to work within and sometimes outside the rules to advance their causes and to reward their supporters. [3] Some have labelled the faction leaders and numbers men as the faceless men of the Labor Party, who have also been accused of being driving forces for the election of party leaders and cabinet ministers and the removal of prime ministers. When all factions play the system, it is not possible to tell the true views of party members on particular issues. The Hawke-Wran review of the ALP in 2002 [4] claimed that branch stacking, largely driven by factions seeking to expand their influence, had a "cancerous" effect on the party and a "deadening" effect on branch activity, as many of the recruited members have no commitment to the party.
Commentators and authors who are or were in the Liberal Party of Australia have claimed that similar activity in its branches has had a similar effect. [5] [6] A recent example of alleged branch stacking in the Liberal Party occurred in 2017, with Liberals in Victoria claiming that members from within the party's religious right were stacking branches with Mormons and Catholic groups in a drive to preselect more conservative candidates. [7] A similar situation was reported in 2019, with allegations that members of the Liberal Party's hard-right faction in Sydney were attempting to engage in branch stacking to erode the support of factional rivals, which included sitting Liberal members in several safe state and federal seats. [8]
In 2021, branch stacking within the Western Australian Liberals was presumed to be a factor in the party's defeat in the prior state election following a cache of leaked WhatsApp messages. Branch stacking by a faction called The Clan resulted in a concentration of more right-wing, conservative candidates. Among The Clan's members were Mathias Cormann, Ian Goodenough, Peter Collier and Nick Goiran. Former premier Colin Barnett believes this adversely impacted the party's election outcome and an internal review of the election defeat is forthcoming. [9]
In 2023, former NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham alleged that party founder and federal party leader Pauline Hanson had been involved in branch stacking in New South Wales after Hanson removed Latham as the party's state leader in New South Wales. Hanson has denied the allegations. The party's three MPs in the State Parliament (Latham, Tania Mihailuk and Rod Roberts; all members of the Legislative Council) were divided on loyalties: Mihailuk was reported to have sided with Hanson and had a "troubled relationship" with Latham, while Roberts sided with Latham. [10] Latham and Roberts eventually left the party and sat as independents after Latham alleged that One Nation misused electoral funds and that there was a "Queensland taker of the NSW branch". [11]
Activities commonly considered to be branch stacking include the following:
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