Opposition leader Tony Abbott has played down the latest poll which shows an increase in support for Labor.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd addresses the National Press Club in Canberra / Pic: Kym Smith Source: The Daily Telegraph
KEVIN Rudd's promise to clean up the NSW Labor Party is in tatters following allegations of branch-stacking to elect a former Labor boss and union official to replace retiring minister Peter Garrett.
Mr Rudd is now being called upon by ALP members in the seat of Kingsford Smith, in Sydney's south, to urgently intervene following claims that the membership books had been "cooked" to deliver the preselection to Labor Senator Matt Thistlethwaite in a vote due this Saturday.
Labor sources suggest Mr Thistlethwaite was pushed to run for the seat to free up his Senate spot for the current NSW party secretary Sam Dastyari - the man helping Mr Rudd clean up Labor.
The Daily Telegraph has obtained ALP documents showing glaring irregularities in the membership list of Mr Thistlethwaite's local branch of Malabar, which neighbours Foreign Minister Bob Carr's local Maroubra branch.
The documents show that 58 people - more than half the entire branch membership - apparently paid their membership fees on the same day and coincidentally on the March 31 cut off-date to become eligible to vote in this week's ballot.
Senior ALP sources confirmed that this was highly suspicious and should have triggered an investigation by the party head office.
"It's not stacking - more like a front end loader," said one local ALP member who claimed the "bad old days" had returned.
"The rules are quite clear. No one else can pay for your membership, if someone else paid for your membership it would be paid in bulk.
"The question is where did the money come from?"
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Tony Bowen, the Labor mayor of Randwick who will today nominate to contest the preselection against Mr Thistlethwaite, has warned that the integrity of Mr Rudd's promise to reform rested on a fair fight in the marginal seat.
Mr Bowen is the son of respected former deputy prime minister Lionel Bowen who held the Kingsford Smith seat for 21 years until 1990.
"Given the trouble that beset the NSW Labor party in recent years and the amount of scrutiny this preselection will be under and its significance nationally, it has to be absolutely squeaky clean," he said. "There cannot be any margin for any funny business."
Mr Thistlethwaite, the former NSW Labor Party secretary and Australian Workers Union candidate, still has three years to serve as a senator.
Sources claim he was initially reluctant to give up his safe Senate seat for the lower house seat he has always coveted now that it is marginal.
However, one senior party figure suggested he was pushed to run to free up his Senate spot as a second option for Mr Dastyari, whose future claim to Mr Carr's Senate spot would not be guaranteed if Labor won the election and Mr Carr decided to continue serving as Foreign Minister.
A local branch member and former head of Labor's state electoral council for the seat, Tim Mitchell, said: "Kevin Rudd last week announced reforms to clean up the party - a lot of members will have serious doubt that they will have a clean and proper process this week to ensure only eligible members of the party will be voting in the pre-selection this Saturday."
Mr Rudd has refused to allow head office to impose candidates in a bid to democratise the party and has called for all outstanding preselections to be rank and file ballots. But in what some local members claimed was a "sham", nominations for the seat close at midday today with people given less than 24 hours to challenge voting members they believe ineligible before a vote in five days time, compared to up to three weeks for all other outstanding preselections.
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