Theo Theophanous, one of the longest serving members of the Victorian Labor caucus, has announced his intention to retire from State Parliament at the next election.
Mr Theophanous’ announcement came at the end of a committal hearing in the Magistrate’s Court arising from charges levelled against him by the Office of Public Prosecutions.
The hearing exonerated Mr Theophanous.The case itself occurred around the time of the publication of a report by the Office of Ombudsman in to the affairs of the Brimbank City Council.
This report – noteworthy for its pettiness – mentioned Theo Theophanous as one of a number of people external to the council who had sought to exert undue influence over its affairs.
Mr Theophanous’ role in Brimbank, such as it was, was nowhere near as significant as others mentioned in the report, but the combined effect of both the Brimbank affair and the matters before the courts gave the impression that Mr Theophanous is on his way out of politics because he has done something wrong.
From the outset it must be stated: Mr Theophanous has done nothing wrong. The reasons for his imminent retirement are purely political and relate to the machinations of the Victorian ALP.
In particular, it relates to the break-down of the local factional alignments that Mr Theophanous had helped arrange and which had sustained his parliamentary career.
To identify the real source of Mr Theophanous’ decline it is necessary to look to the pre-selection for Kororoit.
At the time, there was an expectation that former mayor of the City of Brimbank, Natalie Suleyman, would get pre-selection based on the fact that she had support of the local Labor branches under the direction of the party’s dominant right faction.
Ms Suleyman also enjoyed the support of a factional alliance that included Mr Theophanous’ network of local branches over which his supporters exercised some influence.
Then, at the last moment, sections of this alliance defected from the agreement to support Suleyman to back the eventual winner, Marlene Kairouz.
It was the collapse of the local factional network that precipitated the shenanigans in Brimbank that the Obudsman eventually investigated.
The subsequent report gave the Premier, John Brumby, the ammunition he needed to instigate a ‘rejuvenation’ policy to apply during the latest round of Labor pre-selections for the next state election due in 2010.
With his localised alliances in tatters after the Kororoit matter, and with the Premier having successfully referred upper house pre-selections to Labor’s National Executive, the end was suddenly beckoning for the MLC for Northern Metropolitan.
In 2010 the curtain will fall on Mr Theophanous’ long political career.
He is one of the few parliamentary survivors of the Cain-Kirner years, and his seniority saw him rise to the position of opposition leader in the Legislative Council during Labor’s dark years of opposition in the 90s.
He was also a senior minister in the Brumby Government until the false accusation that precipitated his court appearance forced him to stand down.
Mr Theophanous was a very smart political operator, particularly in his ability to mobilise members of the diverse communities that reside in the western and northern suburbs of Melbourne to become a source of membership for the ALP.
Although some criticised Theophanous as a ‘branch stacker’, it is also quite clear that his efforts helped to diversify the Labor party and make a number of its branches much more culturally representative.
Mr Theophanous also operated cleverly within Labor’s complex factional system.
Initially a member of the Socialist Left, Theophanous later created a locally-based group under the ‘Labor Renewal’ rubric that acted as a broker between the left and right and, later, between the two sub-factions of the right that emerged when the faction started to splinter some years ago.
This clever operating within the factional system was the basis of his political career but, by the same token, a decline in the influence of his sub-faction would pose a real risk to his future.
This was why the collapse of the Kororoit by-election pre-selection deal was such a disaster for him.
Unlike some others, in announcing his intention to retire Theophanous did not publicly criticise the party that sustained him, or threaten to run as an independent.
Rather, he has taken his leave in a dignified manner – quite an achievement given the attacks on his character launched by the Victorian Ombudsman and the legal process he has just endured.
Dr Nick Economou is a senior lecturer in politics in the School of Political and Social Inquiry and he is a regular contributor to NKEE and political commentator for the ABC.