In the wake of Labor’s branch-stacking scandal in Victoria, attention has turned once more to the organized factions within the Australian Labor Party (ALP). While factions are decried as remnants of the Cold War or as patronage machines, the reality is more complex. Without understanding its factions, it is difficult to understand the party itself.

It’s crucial to grasp the factions’ self-told narratives as well as their ideological and historical influences. The Labor Left is home to a range of worldviews including Keynesian liberalism, militant laborism, Fabian social democracy, New Left social movements, and democratic socialism. The Left sees itself as the conscience of the party, seeking a government to represent broader social forces. It aspires to lead progressive change from inside the party, not simply use Parliament as a bully pulpit.

The Right is a heterogeneous Cold War alliance of anti-communist social democrats, Catholic and pure-and-simple trade unionists, party officials, and Third Way neoliberals. They are united by a transactional approach to seeking governance, which, while rhetorically claiming to not be tied down by ideology, aims to deliver results to their social base. To quote former New South Wales (NSW) senator and right-wing power broker Graham Richardson, their ethos is “whatever it takes.”