Another MP, Robin Scott, resigned soon after as assistant treasurer.

Time will tell whether more heads roll.

Questioned by the Newcastle Herald, the region's four federal Labor MPs and two of their state Labor counterparts condemned the Victorian situation.

Two federal MPs even insisted branch stacking was not a problem in the Hunter.

They may be technically correct right now, but the Herald has reported various allegations and instances of branch stacking over the years, and from the Coalition as well as Labor.

In 2018, stacking allegations emerged from the Newcastle branch of the Liberal Party.

In 2015, branch-stacking allegations were flying during a preselection battle between Jaimie Abbott and Ken Jordan to replace Craig Baumann as Liberal candidate for Port Stephens.

In 2017, veteran Central Coast Labor figure Belinda Neil - the wife of former MP John Della Bosca - was expelled from the party for "unworthy conduct" relating to branch stacking offences.

In 2008, Sharon Claydon's predecessor as federal Newcastle MP, Sharon Grierson, laid a branch stacking charge against an office-holder in a suburban branch that was controlled by her internal opponents, the ALP Right.

And on it goes.

Unless one faction wants to make the situation known, branch disputes often go unreported by the media.

The two sides of politics often maintain a bipartisan cone of silence, believing their joint interests are better served by letting sleeping dogs lie.

But branch stacking is not the only way for political operatives to force an issue.

The Hunter's Left-leaning ALP branches have endured years of pressure from the party's Right-dominated head office, which no doubt believes it has acted in the party's best interest.

In such situations, rank and file members will often see head office interference as undemocratic, and unwanted.

None of this is to excuse the goings-on in Victoria.

But in the same way that "one person's terrorist is another's freedom-fighter", one person's branch stacking can be another's effort to "bring on change".

The crime, as far as the political class is concerned, usually lies in getting caught.

ISSUE: 39,634.

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