POLLIE LABOR PAINS
LABOR’S Bill Shorten and Richard Marles have led uncannily parallel lives, but insiders say the friendship between the power duo is starting to fray. HARRISON TIPPET reports
THEY were born within two months of each other in 1967, the year a Liberal Premier insisted on one more hanging before the nation turned its back on capital punishment.
They each flourished under doting parents and, through Victorian private school educations, became lawyers, worked at Melbourne plaintiff firms, and then entered the trade union movement.
“Brothers” of the Labor right rather than “comrades” of the party’s left, they were on the same side for the perpetual counting, fighting and bloodletting within the ALP.
Marles came up in the Transport Workers Union before moving to the ACTU where Shorten was on a rocket from state to national secretary.
As the years went by, they each said farewell to first wives. In 2007 Shorten and Marles both ran for Federal Parliament and both won, becoming the MPs for Maribyrnong and Corio respectively.
This gave them front-row seats and even walk-on parts in the grander bloodletting as the guillotine fell during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd era.
And if the future follows the polls and there are no major surprises, Shorten will, by the end of next year, be the Prime Minister and Marles his Defence Minister.
So these should be halcyon days for the Labor pair but, as the long journey to the top of the pile reaches its peak, the political relationship between Marles and Shorten is as strained as it has been in years.
The most recent signs of this tension emerged in the strangest way on Spring Street and involved claims of brandished butter knives, vulgar texts and Marles’ mate, Lara MP John Eren.
As with Shorten, Richard Marles and the man he still refers to by his Turkish name ‘Hamdi’ – John Eren – have been through a lot together.
The Corio federal MP (Marles) and Lara state Labor MP (Eren) are both good mates, both from the party’s right wing faction, and both are adept at navigating the internal machinations of their party.
In political circles they are often credited with helping Labor’s right take control of the Geelong region — particularly the federal frontbencher Marles.
The pair also weathered the storm of explosive allegations in 2006 when Geelong identity, and a past girlfriend of Marles, Roxanne Bennett, wrote a statutory declaration accusing Marles of branch stacking and Eren of benefiting from it.
Bennett claimed she and Marles visited the ALP head office in King St to collect money for local factional leaders to buy memberships in Geelong and skew local votes in their favour.
Marles “completely refuted” the claims at the time, saying Bennett was bitter over their break-up.
Now Marles and Eren are back in the headlines, after a parliamentary bust-up between Victorian Labor MP Adem Somyurek and Eren gave the public a rare peek at some of the blunter internal factional workings of the ALP.
Witnesses said Somyurek and Eren almost came to blows in the parliamentary dining room late last month — with allegations of a butter knife being brandished by Somyurek — over a factional power struggle involving their rival Labor right factions.
Marles’ role as a factional player was thrust into the limelight as a result of the confrontation, thanks to a vicious text message tirade sent from Somyurek to Eren, leaked in the aftermath.
“I’m going to f--- that Marles. I better not see that ----,” one said.
“No one f--- (sic) lies to and rat f---s like that and gets way (sic) with it.”
It was all very unseemly but it begged the question: What had Marles done to make the red mist of anger descend in such a way for Somyurek?
In the aftermath of cuttlerygate, Marles was described as a supporter of Anthony Albanese, the man slated to be a possible challenger to Shorten’s role as Opposition Leader.
Some suggested Marles was resisting the “merger” Somyurek was proposing — a factional realignment that would further empower Shorten — purely because it would benefit Shorten.
Marles reportedly played a role in sinking a deal endorsed by Shorten, dubbed the Industrial Left and Centre Unity alliance, which proposed to rewrite the party’s factional lines.
Insiders claim what likely sparked the Somyurek-Eren confrontation was Marles and a pair of unions refusing to sign the deal at a February meeting.
Marles himself declined to comment this week, refusing to respond to any questions around his potential support of Albanese.
Those close to the Corio MP say claims he was being an obstacle to the new factional alliance as an act of bastardry toward his leader are craft- ed leaks designed to cause him problems.
But speculation about Marles hedging his bets when it comes to Shorten and making nice with ‘Albo’ pre-date the ‘butter knife bust-up’.
Earlier this year, Marles offered support to Albanese’s proposal to hold a joint referendum on the republic and indigenous constitutional recognition on January 26 — his backing came after Shorten had refused to offer his support.
Some claim Marles has ambition to be the Foreign Affairs Minister in a Labor government but that Shorten has him pencilled in for the more junior portfolio of Defence.
Marles has history playing kingmaker — or at least attempting to — resigning from the front bench in 2013 after an aborted attempt to replace Prime Minister Julia Gillard with Kevin Rudd in a leadership spill.
“From here on in, I will be dedicating myself as the Member for Corio, to serving the Gillard Labor government and to working tirelessly for its re-election and the re-election of Julia Gillard as prime minister,” he said in a statement at the time.
“... in the circumstances of today’s events I believe this to be the appropriate course.”
At the moment there’s little more than rumours circling around a possible leadership challenge in the ALP.
But if, as the election approaches, the times get more turbulent for Shorten, there will be many eyes on the Member for Corio to see what he believes is the best course to take.