The Ferguson Left (also known as the Soft Left in New South Wales) is a political sub-faction in New South Wales within the
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...
(ALP) founded by
Jack Ferguson.
In New South Wales, the Soft Left traces its roots to the supporters of
Peter Baldwin, who led the Steering Committee (previous name for the New South Wales
Socialist Left) during its rise in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
It was the dominant group on the Steering Committee until March 1989, when the Soft Left's
John Faulkner was succeeded by the Hard Left's
Anthony Albanese
Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been the Leaders of the Australian Labor Party#Leader, leader of the Labor Party si ...
in an internal faction ballot for the leading position of Assistant General Secretary of the New South Wales Labor Party.
The new Hard Left majority changed the name of the faction to the Socialist Left in November 1989.
The traditional base for the Soft Left has been rank-and-file Labor activists. Strategically, it has advocated a continuation of the Baldwinite bottom-up strategy of mobilising the grassroots membership to win party positions.
The large Australian trade union,
United Voice
United Voice was an Australian trade union from 1992 to 2019. It merged with the National Union of Workers to form the United Workers Union in 2019. United Voice was part of the Labor Left faction of the Australian Labor Party.
The union was ...
supported the Soft Left until 2010.
In 2014 the sub-faction in New South Wales was led by
Paul Lynch,
and it currently still exists in New South Wales with the support of the
CFMEU. The Soft Left continues to enjoy the support of the majority of Labor Party members in Western Sydney and Newcastle.
In Victoria, there was a separate and distinct Ferguson faction led by
Martin Ferguson, who was not affiliated with the Ferguson Left in New South Wales.
Following the retirement of Martin Ferguson, the Ferguson faction reunited with the Victorian
Socialist Left in 2014–15.
Past federal members included
Martin Ferguson and
Julia Gillard
Julia Eileen Gillard (born 29 September 1961) is an Australian former politician who served as the 27th prime minister of Australia from 2010 to 2013. She held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), having previously served as the ...
.
References
Australian Labor Party factions
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