Voting equality ?

Bill Shorten has won the leadership of the Australian Labor party, but many will question the " Vote value " that was applied to that victory.

For the first time, the rank and file members of the ALP branches were a part of choosing the party leader and the 30,426 people who were eligible cast their vote across all Australian states.   The result was 18,230 for Anthony Albanese - and 12,196 for Bill Shorten.    Clearly, Albanese won the popular vote.

The 86 parliamentarty members of the Labor Caucus also voted on their choice of a leader, but here the result was very different.   Bill Shorten gained the majority - and then the percentages of both the branch and caucus votes were joined together - to give Shorten a 55 to 52 % victory.

That was not exactly the old hallowed principle of every vote having an equal value, as we endorse when we mere mortals go to a Federal election to choose which form of government will run the country.

Each caucus vote is heavily weighted and far superior in value to the vote cast by the individual branch members - and each of those caucus members owes his or her allegience to a " faction " - so the choice of leader was once again in the hands of the notorious factions - and very little has really changed.

Bill Shorten is a creature of the " right " and Anthony Albanese comes from the " left " faction.   In the past, the selection of ministers and the allocation of portfolios was in the hands of the faction bosses and settled in smoke filled rooms - behind closed doors.

Kevin Rudd ended that when he demanded  the right to make those choices at his discretion.   The outlook of the leader now has a more direct bearing on which way the party charts it's course.

Obviously, the wishes of the vast rank and file is not the determining factor in modern Labor politics !