Faction Fight !

Politics has very little to do with the platform which political parties take to elections.  The real world is the power with which the various factions control the voting strength which decides if legislation will become law- or languish miserably because it fails to get the numbers.

We are seeing just such a faction fight embroiling Emma Husar of Labor who holds the Federal seat of Lindsay.  Ms Husar has decided to withdraw from this factional fight by opting not to recontest at the next Federal election.  She will remain in parliament until that occurs so as to not require a punishing by-election which would ignite the inevitable Turnbull - Shorten contest that dogged the recent by-elections stoked by that " foreign citizenship " issue.

Ms Husar claims that she is being attacked by former staff and a powerful right wing bloc who have not accepted her since she won the seat away from a former Liberal contender.  This has consisted of a " whispering campaign " in which she is accused of verbally abusing staff, having them run errands and exercise her dog, picking up its droppings and using her electoral allowance for personal shopping.

These claims are being investigated by an internal Labor party source but Ms Husar claims that her home has become a media circus with television vans parked outside her front door and her kids have been trolled online. Her tormentors have even added a sexual gambit to whip up public interest and take the issue to gutter level.  In a strange repeat of a story line from a movie of decades earlier she is accused of deliberately crossing and uncrossing her legs in the presence of a colleague - while not wearing underwear.

Labor's leader, Bill Shorten has given her support and many in the party have misgivings about his ability to win government at the next election.  A contender is waiting in the wings and Ms Husar's decision to withdraw from the fight and not contest her seat at the next election probably saved Shorten from a messy controversy in which he would be accused of backing a loser.

On the other side of politics, Malcolm Turnbull has problems with factions within his own party. Leadership today is far changed from those earlier days when " Ming the Merciless "  arched those impressive eyebrows at any party dissenter and had him or her banished to the back bench.

The politics of today requires leaders to be constantly cajoling their factions to step in line and vote in the interest of party solidarity.  The fact that they refuse is indicative of the poor standard of governance at both the Federal and state level.  There is little evidence that this will improve in the future.