Labor's national Left faction is on the verge of splitting, with Victorian senator Kim Carr rallying a breakaway group of four federal MPs in response to moves to dump him from the ALP shadow ministry.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The grouping, based in Victoria and dubbed the "industrial left", would constitute a new faction if implemented.
Fairfax Media understands a letter has been prepared for Senator Carr and Victorian MPs Maria Vamvakinou, Lisa Chesters and Gavin Marshall to sign, and trigger the creation of a new factional grouping.
Under ALP rules the group will then demand a position on the frontbench as four MPs is considered a quota, however the national Left is likely to fight this claim.
The letter would then be taken to the national Right faction's conveners.
A meeting of the Victorian Left faction on Wednesday night, which was boycotted by opponents of Senator Carr, passed a motion to support keeping that state's current frontbench line up of Senator Carr, Jenny Macklin, Catherine King and Brendan O'Connor in place.
According to leaked minutes of the meeting, the push to dump Senator Carr from the frontbench has become a "farce" and the principle of proportional representation that governs how shadow ministerial portfolios has been "repudiated".
"The Vic Socialist Left Executive rejects both this repudiation of [proportional representation] and the public attacks that have been made on sitting Victorian frontbench representatives through the national media," the minutes noted.
The infighting in the Left has been triggered by moves to dump Senator Carr from the frontbench ahead of a caucus meeting in Canberra on Friday at which the details of Bill Shorten's reshuffled shadow ministry will be thrashed out.
Senior figures in the left including Tanya Plibersek, Anthony Albanese, Ms Macklin, Mark Butler and Ms King, are said to support the move to dump Senator Carr from the 14-person Labor Left shadow ministry.
That triggered a furious reaction from Senator Carr, his rump of supporters in Victoria and sections of the union movement.
The move on Senator Carr follows the resignation of state Labor MP Jane Garrett from Premier Daniel Andrews' ministry.
Ms Garrett, like Senator Carr, had the support of the state's industrial Left and there is already anger about the groupings loss of a spot in the Victorian cabinet.
One member of the national Left said that it would be "interesting to see what the right does" in response to Senator Carr's "terrorism".
"This could lead to the Balkanisation of the entire caucus," the MP said.
A second national Left MP said that if the split went ahead, it would be "impossible to move anyone on in the future".
