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Labor MP Laurie Ferguson has rounded on his brother Martin for publicly supporting power privatisation in New South Wales, but stopped short of backing calls to expel the former minster from the party.
But one of the longest-serving leaders of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Bill Kelty, has hit back at suggestions his former colleague should be expelled from the ALP.
On Monday, Laurie Ferguson - who is still a sitting Labor MP in the federal parliament - told Fairfax Media that "I totally disagree with Martin's view on privatisation".
"I don't think what I think matters [about expulsion]," he said. He added he did not think his brother's "intervention in New South Wales was helpful to Labor Party interests".
Mr Kelty, who served as secretary of the ACTU from 1983 to 2000 - a period in which Mr Ferguson was vice-president and then president - warned ALP and union members pushing for his expulsion from the party to calmly assess the situation.
"Should he be expelled? Of course not. Never have I thought for one second that Martin is not true blue Labor. People need to calm down, sit down and reflect and be mature," he said.
"You have to allow a diversity of views."
Momentum is building for Mr Ferguson to be expelled from the Victorian branch of the Labor Party after he accused NSW Labor and the union movement of deliberately misleading voters by claiming Premier Mike Baird's proposed privatisation of the "poles and wires" would drive up power prices.
The comments were made at the launch of author and editor Keith Orchison's book On Power.
In a piece on the Business Spectator website, Mr Orchison said the "frothing" members of the ALP should know Mr Ferguson "didn't connive with the Liberal Party to provide the now notorious film clip of him condemning the meretricious campaign against power network privatisation. Ferguson was actually in London on business when Premier Mike Baird's office approached me for access to the film clip and I gave it".
At a Friday meeting of the Victorian Trades Hall Council executive in Melbourne, maritime union secretary Kevin Bracken moved a motion condemning Mr Ferguson, who was a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments, and urging the Labor Party to kick him out. It was unanimously passed by all state leaders of affiliated unions.
The next step will be for a member of the Victorian disputes panel to make a ruling on the move to expel Mr Ferguson. Whatever the decision, either party to the dispute can then appeal the decision to the national executive.
On Saturday, NSW Labor senator Sam Dastyari said there was no place for Mr Ferguson in the party, describing his behaviour as a "bastard act".
Mr Ferguson, who now serves as the chairman of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association advisory board, said on Monday he had consistently argued in opposition, government and since leaving Parliament that electricity network privatisation would drive down power prices.
"What am I going to be expelled for? Freedom of speech and consistency of policy position?" he said.
"The positions I espoused are consistent and I continue to hold them, and I'm not alone. A variety of former premiers and prime ministers have argued the same case."
Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating and NSW premiers Bob Carr and Morris Iemma have also endorsed power privatisation in that state.
Labor treasury spokesman Chris Bowen pointed out Mr Ferguson's long service to the party, as well as that of his family.
"I don't see anything I can add to a public debate about Martin who has served the party for a long time and his family obviously. So any views that I have on that will be expressed internally."
Labor's shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh told Fairfax Media on Monday he did not think it was "helpful of Martin Ferguson" to allow his comments to be used in the Liberal Party advertisement.
He said expulsion would be a matter for the party.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten is in China and has not commented on the matter.
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said Mr Ferguson had simply told the truth and that he was "more in touch with people who voted for the Labor Party in the past than Bill Shorten ever will be".
"If people think he should be thrown out of the Labor Party because he told the truth, I think that tells you something about the Labor Party. So my question to Bill Shorten is, does he think Martin Ferguson should be expelled from the Labor Party?"
