Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's push for reform of the ALP has been thwarted in his home state of Victoria.
Mr Shorten's promise to slash union sway in parliamentary preselections has been declared "dead in the water" by factional chiefs ahead of the state conference this month.
Mr Shorten on Wednesday all but conceded defeat on his push to increase the influence of party members on preselections saying "change takes time". "I believe it is absolutely necessary to rebuild Labor as a party of members; a party where more people are involved, more often," he said.
This week, factional leaders were adamant they would not back Mr Shorten's proposal to give local party members a 70 per cent say in preselections, up from the current 50:50 split between local branches and Labor's central selection panel. "It [the 70 per cent proposal] is dead in the water," one senior right-wing powerbroker said.
One union leader slammed the 70:30 idea, pointing out that it would simply transfer power from the affiliated unions to "branch-stackers".
Poor Mr Shorten. HIs only idea for the Party of Ideas, and it gets slammed. TskTsk.
