It is the biggest Labor Party branch in Victoria, with a membership that has leapt from 13 to more than 325 in the past decade.
As a critical decision looms about whether to take preselection votes out of the hands of members, party insiders are wondering — is the Heidelberg branch possibly being stacked?
Children huddle on the carpet inside the red-brick walls of Saadi Ali’s public housing flat in Heidelberg West.
It is too cold for them to enjoy the second week of school holidays outside, so they are watching television in the living room.
The Tarakan Street flat in Melbourne’s north-east was built more than 50 years ago and is so dilapidated the state government plans to demolish it.
There are seven Labor Party members registered in this two-bedroom unit.
Ms Ali, who came to Australia from Somalia little more than a year ago, understands English well enough, but is unclear about some of the details regarding her party membership. So she calls her husband.
“I joined because of all the support they gave me, with housing and everything,” Abdi Roble said.
They” is not the Labor Party. It is the Somali Australian Council of Victoria (SACOV).
And “he” is Hussein Haraco, the founder and secretary of SACOV, a respected community leader who also happens to be the president of the ALP’s Heidelberg branch.
Since 2008, the year after Dr Haraco joined the branch, membership has increased from 13 to more than 325.
It is, he said, a triumph of Somali-Australians expressing the will to participate in democracy.
But one member the ABC spoke to said Dr Haraco paid for her membership, and the memberships of her parents and her two sisters, and directed them how to vote.
Dr Haraco denied paying for memberships or directing members how to vote and said there had not been any relevant vote since 2014, before the woman was a member.
Another member did not even know she had been signed up until spoken to by the ABC — but said it was likely she had been signed up by a relative.
At least 24 members do not live where branch records said they do and a further 19 are registered at addresses linked to Dr Haraco, including 10 that use the SACOV postal address.
Other members — like Mr Roble — said Dr Haraco recruited them after they sought help through SACOV, raising ethical concerns the community organisation doubles as a recruitment arm for the party.
Dr Haraco said the use of the SACOV postal address and other discrepancies with the branch membership list could be explained by the “transience” of the community.
Recruiting is not a breach of party rules — in fact, it is encouraged, given Bill Shorten wants to boost party membership to 100,000 — providing the intent of that recruitment is not to control the vote of new members.
But Labor insiders (factionally aligned and otherwise) have told the ABC they are concerned the biggest branch in the state might have been stacked — the term used when a large percentage of members are recruited by a particular faction that controls their vote.
Those fears became public on Tuesday night when United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall wrote to the ALP’s Victoria office demanding an investigation into membership growth in Heidelberg.
Fears several branches in Victoria, including Heidelberg, might have been stacked with members who will vote with a faction, rather than freely, are contributing to a push to strip the power for preselection from branch members and hand it to the national executive.
The stakes are high: as many as four federal seats, including Jagajaga, which includes the Heidelberg branch, are in need of new Labor candidates.
The push to shift the decision to the national executive has been endorsed by powerbrokers Stephen Conroy and Kim Carr.
The decision about the national executive was set to be made by the state administrative committee on Wednesday, but the ABC understands the meeting was delayed for the third time.
Adem Somyurek, a former Andrews’ Government minister, controls one of the most powerful factions in the state — Moderate Labor.
Dr Haraco is an electorate officer for Mr Somyurek, whose faction holds critical sway when it comes to preselections.
Senior sources said shifting the vote to the national executive would neuter Mr Somyurek’s power.
Source: ABC NET
