Shouts from the desert

With factions in the Victorian branch of the ALP seeking to oust Crean from his seat in a preselection battle, the former leader of the opposition has come out and said that the party needs his experience in Parliament. Looking at the numbers, he is clearly right. The ALP currently has only 10 people in the federal Parliament who have federal ministerial experience - and four of those only have experience as Parliamentary Secretaries. They may be able to make up the numbers using one more - Dick Adams was a Minister in a State Government - but even so, a mere 6 members with previous experience as a full Minister at the federal level is already looking weak. Cutting it down to 5 now will not help matters.

If, as seems likely, the ALP lose the next election, Beazley's political prospects will be irretrievably shattered, and he will most likely exit. That would put them down to 4. Senator Ray has been in Parliament 25 years now and will almost certainly be considering his future if the ALP loses. That will leave only Faulkner, Kerr and Lawrence in the federal full Minister experience box.

The problem with this is that when the opposition lacks people with experience in Government, people start questioning whether they even have the capacity to govern the nation if they win the election. That is a hurdle they do not need.

Eliminating Crean now would be a bad move for the ALP, but good sense never stopped the factions from exacting their revenge.