NSW Labor must accept reform

Eddie Obeid

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has found that Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald engaged in corrupt conduct and their findings have been referred to the DPP who will decide if there is enough evidence to lay criminal charges.  Both men are still claiming they have done nothing wrong.

Ian Macdonald

Today, ex NSW Premier Nathan Rees wrote an article in The Drum, telling Labor Party members who continue to resist reform to get out.  He said party members who have been pushing for reform have had to "argue, push and cajole every inch of the way" and there are people within the party who are arguing strongly against any changes.

ex Premier, Nathan Rees

Nathan Rees writes:

I have a message for these people, you don't get it and you never will.  If you are not prepared to help modernize our great party, then at least be decent enough to resign.  Get out. Do not be the handbrake on our efforts to modernize the party so that we can deliver in the future for the millions of working Australians. Those Australians depend on a healthy Labor Party to represent their interests.  Our party is not a plaything, it is not your fiefdom and it is not your social worker.

Soon after Kevin Rudd was resurrected as Prime Minister, he organized a meeting with the NSW ALP national executive and this week, they unanimously endorsed a package of reforms. Faction-controlled tribunals will be replaced with an independent judicial body and any NSW ALP member found guilty of corruption or who brings the party into disrepute will be expelled.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said that Mr Rudd was only Prime Minister because the NSW Labor Party put him there.  "And if he ever seriously tackles the rottenness at the heart of NSW Labor, he will be dealt with by the warlords of Sussex Street again as he was back in June 2010."

Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott

The Opposition Leader said federal ALP could not escape the stench of its NSW branch and Kevin Rudd's acceptance of  NSW General Secretary Sam Dastyari into the Senate and former assistant secretary Matt Thistlethwaite, running for the seat of Kingsford Smith, was a sure sign that the "NSW disease was moving to Canberra."

The Federal Election is now just weeks away.