Quotas: Does Labor never learn from their mistakes?

Kristina Keneally frontbench position set to spark Labor factional brawl

There are concerns within the party that Labor could have fewer women on its frontbench than the Coalition given the [Labor] right’s failure to elevate female MPs to the ministry. On Monday, Albanese was asked if the party’s new Senate team would comprise two women after it was confirmed that his deputy leader would be Victorian Richard Marles. ‘We’re working through those issues. And one of the things that I’ve said, very clearly, is that I respect caucus processes’, Albanese said.

Source: The Guardian

Keneally’s record:

The worst electoral defeat suffered by a state Labor government ever

Keneally led Labor into the 2011 state election. Antony Green estimated that Labor faced being cut down to as few as 13 seats. The [Labor] party was in danger of losing seats it had held for over a century, and there were fears Labor would not be able to hold onto enough seats to form a credible shadow cabinet.

In the 26 March election, the Labor government was heavily defeated, suffering a swing of over 16 per cent — the largest in a general election at any level in Australia since World War II. In the process, Labor lost many seats in its former western Sydney heartland, two of which fell to the Liberals on swings of 20 percent. Ultimately, Labor was cut down to 20 seats (down from 48), its worst showing in over a century and one of the worst defeats a sitting state government in Australia has ever suffered.

Bennelong by-election, 2017

In November 2017, Keneally was preselected by federal Labor as their candidate for the Bennelong by-election on 16 December. Despite picking up a five percent two-party swing, she lost to the previous incumbent and Liberal candidate John Alexander.

Source: Wikipedia

Kristina Keneally’s key role in Labor’s campaign

Ms Keneally is not a shadow minister but she has emerged as the party’s most formidable attack dog. An expert in strategic communication said Ms Keneally could be Labor’s ‘secret weapon’ — at once humanising the somewhat wooden Mr Shorten, connecting with voters and showing up the Coalition’s relative dearth of female frontbench MPs.

[Even though she lost] the 2017 by-election for Bennelong, just months later, in early 2018, she was drafted into the senate.

Now she’s accompanying Mr Shorten in Labor’s big red battle bus.

Source: News.com.au