Former Liberal staffer lifts lid on new party king’s subjects

“Five people in a function room above a pub assigning positions to one another.” Former Liberal staffer reveals who the SA party’s new leader will rule.

I’ve spent a long time around party politics.

Longer than I’d like to admit – and much longer than any normal person should.

Long enough to know exactly how late you can arrive at a Saturday morning meeting, hungover, and still make the vote.

Long enough to know which two older party stalwarts can’t be in the same car on the way to a preselection, or that the quality of the chicken sandwiches at a fundraiser is directly proportional to how safe the seat is.

And long enough to have genuine, deeply held opinions on how a factional ticket should be formatted.

If that sentence means nothing to you, you’ve probably made better choices than I have.

Earning your stripes inside a political party takes years. Most of them spent talking to the same people – people who already vote your way.

Increasingly, I think that’s a problem.

This week, one party seems poised to install Alex Antic as Party President. Another has watched Jacinta Allan resign the leadership after mounting internal pressure.

At first glance, those stories have nothing to do with one another.

Different parties. Different states. Different houses. Different lengths of service.

Did the PM just get mogged at Adelaide’s big Labor conference?

Demographic lottery: Self-storage wins,........

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