LABOR OUSTS BOSS

PARTY PAINS: Exec cancels conference, dumps president

TASMANIAN Labor’s president has been removed and the party’s state conference cancelled as the opposition party’s time of turmoil continues.

The revelations came after intervention by ALP’s national executive after it met on Tuesday.

Ben McGregor said he was “distressed” to have been removed from his role, returning just weeks ago and saying he had been cleared of sexual harassment following an independent investigation.

Mr McGregor (pictured) was a candidate for the May state election in Clark, but withdrew after an allegation came to light.

“This is very distressing and disappointing ... I have worked hard for the party for many years, striving to give a voice to grassroots members,” he said.

Mr McGregor said the cancellation of the conference was also regrettable.

A letter was sent to party members from Labor state secretary Stuart Benson on Tuesday, saying the conference — scheduled for October 30-31 at Blundstone Arena — would not take place until after the next federal election.

Mr Benson said the focus needed to be on electing a federal Labor government, including re-electing Labor members in Franklin and Lyons, and regaining Bass and Braddon.

The federal election is due next year but a date is unclear.

Labor Party rank and file member Mel Best said she was disappointed the event would not go ahead, especially in a state election year.

“A lot of rank and file members believe it’s avoiding facing up to some of those more controversial decisions that have been made and to avoid being answerable to rank and file members,’’ she said.

It is the latest in a string of events that have dogged the party in recent months.

After Labor lost the state election in May, party leader Rebecca White stepped aside as leader, and was replaced by David O’Byrne.

But Ms White returned as leader after an allegation was aired about Mr O’Byrne’s behaviour towards a female colleague when he was a union leader more than a decade ago.

A party-initiated review found while Mr O’Byrne’s conduct was inappropriate and wrong, it did not breach party policy in force at the time.

Then, Huon MLC Bastian Seidel announced he would quit the party, saying he could no longer work in the party’s “toxic environment”.

During the election campaign, eventual Franklin MP Dean Winter’s bid to be preselected was thwarted by party factional issues, before being overturned by the national executive. More recently, the Health and Community Services Union announced it had disafilliated from Labor.

Political analyst Richard Herr said the move could be a case of “embarrassment avoidance” given Labor’s woes in the state. Liberal MP Sarah Courtney said Federal Labor did not want the “public embarrassment of a shambolic” state conference before the federal poll.