Years of damaging infighting and bitter spats have culminated in Labor's Tasmanian branch being effectively taken over by the party's national executive, in order for it to "improve the culture" and reinstate "trust".
The move — described by the national executive as an "intervention" — follows consecutive Tasmanian state election losses, repeated changes of leadership, and damaging public rows at the local party's highest level.
After presiding over two consecutive election losses in 2018 and 2021, Rebecca White made way for successor David O'Byrne, only for that to come apart after a few weeks due to allegations he sexually harassed a junior union employee more than a decade ago.
Ms White then returned to the leadership in 2021.
The party was also rocked by the resignation of Ben McGregor, who stood down as a candidate during last year's state election campaign over inappropriate text messages he sent to a colleague seven years ago.
Mr McGregor — the party's former state president — went on to threaten Ms White with legal action over comments she made that he was not fit to sit in state parliament.
The party's woes worsened when Labor's health spokesman Bastian Seidel quit the party after only a year in the job, stating he "can't work in a toxic environment".
"I can't work with people who constantly leak information to the media out of pure selfishness," Dr Seidel said in December.
In a statement today, the Australian Labor Party's (ALP) national secretary Paul Erickson said Tasmanian Labor needed a "circuit-breaker to rebuild".
"This intervention is about improving the culture of the branch, reinstating trust, respect, transparency and a party-first approach to internal decision-making," he said.
Former senators Doug Cameron and Nick Sherry have been appointed as administrators of the Tasmanian branch and will be "responsible for the governance and administration of the branch", Mr Erickson said.
"Doug and Nick are respected universally across the labour movement, and bring significant campaign, governance and organisational experience to the task of rebuilding," he said.
Mr Erickson said for the "period of the intervention" the operations of the Tasmanian State Conference and the current Administrative Committee "are suspended".
'We need to work better together to be strong'
At a press conference on Friday, Ms White said the party was "serious about winning the next election in 2025".
"We know the Labor Party owes it to our members and supporters to have a singular focus: holding this government to account," she said.
"The state and federal Labor parties jointly welcome this decision. This decision is one that will allow the Labor branch to modernise … and prepare it for the next election.
"It has been made to give Labor the best chance of returning to power in 2025.
"We need to build a modern united party that upholds our values, [and] builds on our mission ... that provides a greater role for rank-and-file members, and above all, a party that is fit to govern through the challenges of the 21st century."
Ms White conceded Labor "weren't at our best last year".
"But we've made some significant improvements and we want to build on that momentum.
"We need to work better together to be strong, to build a powerful force to bring to the next election to beat this weak Liberal government.
"I think the Liberal party should watch out, because the Labor party is getting its house in order."
Standing alongside Ms White, Mr Sherry said: "The disappointing behaviours we have seen and have flowed through to our poor electoral performance … has to end. That stops now."
"Cultural change is very important.
"It's very important that the administrative wing is united and focused together with our state parliament colleagues … it's very important that we are absolutely united in order to win state election in 2025.
"It's for up to the next three years, so there's a significant amount of work to do."
Liberals slam 'hostile mainland takeover'
Leader of the House Nic Street said Ms White should stand down as leader if she was serious about resetting and rebuilding the party.
"Leadership starts from the top and Ms White's promises to 'unite the party' and 'end the infighting' are in tatters," he said in a statement.
"She has proven that she is powerless to stop Tasmanian Labor's shambolic internal civil war.
"Under Ms White's leadership, Labor has sunk to extraordinary lows – with today's hostile mainland takeover simply the latest in a long line of failures.
"Ms White describing her party as 'not at its best' last year is the understatement of the century."
