That's the alternate headline for Simon Benson's article yesterday in which he recounted Mark Arbib's claims that the NSW Right doesn't control Federal Labor.
The reality is somewhere in between. As Rod Cavalier says in his new book Power Crisis the Left and Right are now no longer about philosophy but patronage. In the stoush in Canberra last June the fact it was the Right that moved was merely a reflection of the fact that it creates communication channels and paths. It wasn't a particularly Right revolt - Kevin Rudd went down because of Kevin Rudd.
Ultimately the issue of the NSW Right predates that and it is their control of "internal polling" rather than factional numbers that leads to their influence as Lenore Taylor revealed in the SMH on the weekend.
The NSW Right still represents all that is wrong with the ALP. Removing the cancer may not heal the patient, but without action the patient will surely die.
What's the difference between the NSW Right and the NSW Left? There are some things a member of the Left just won't do for their faction. In my own ALP experience I really didn't want to join either faction, but disliked the Right more than the Left because of the Right's "bovver boy" approach.
Novae Meridianae Demetae Dexter delenda est
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