By GREG ANSLEY
Gruff, bluff and brim-full of the core values that still permeate most of Australia's conservative suburban sprawl, de Bruyn, national secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association, has thrown his considerable weight against Labor Leader Beazley and towards John Howard, Liberal Prime Minister and guardian of traditionalism.
Not in the sense that he will take his shop assistants and fellow workers across the great divide to Howard's camp: the enemy is still the enemy, after all.
But morally, de Bruyn supports Howard's position on the provision of in-vitro fertilisation only to infertile women in a stable relationship with a husband or male de facto partner.
The issue has deeply divided Australia's conscience.
De Bruyn says Howard's point is very much right - that every child has the right to a father and mother, to know who their father is, who their mother is, and to receive the care, love and nurturing of both parents.
The point here is not the union leader's sense of right and wrong, but the fact that he has decided to publicly support Howard and challenge Beazley on the latter's refusal to grant his MPs a conscience vote on the issue.
This is hitting Beazley where it hurts, and he has been through a lot of pain recently.
Beazley agonised over the stance he should take on IVF exactly because of its potential to spiral into a party brawl between the large section that holds fast to traditional family concepts, and those who believe all women - married, single or lesbian - have a fundamental right to bear children.
In some respects it could be argued that de Bruyn's campaign has helped Beazley's image, giving him the opportunity to stamp his authority first on the caucus, then the national executive, through votes that overwhelmingly supported his position.
But de Bruyn is no lightweight: his union is now the largest affiliated to Labor, is a big contributor to party funds, and is one of only a handful to stack on members over the past decade.
More, de Bruyn has the support of three equally conservative Labor Senators - John Hogg, Jacinta Collins and Mark Bishop - who have refused to side with Beazley on the issue.
They may defy their leader when Howard's legislation to ban IVF treatment from fertile single women and lesbians reaches the Senate - and it would take only two of them to override the combined opposition of fellow Labor and Democrat Senators, allowing the bill to pass.
If the bill was put to an early vote Beazley would have a huge problems in preventing this.
However, with the vote expected to be delayed by a Senate inquiry, he has the time to work on the rebels and bring them into line.
Even so, Beazley faces the very real prospect of an open stoush just after picking the party up from the floor, dusting it down, and steadying it to gain momentum for the next federal election, due late next year.
This will be yet another test of leadership for a man who a week ago seemed to have put all that behind him, and for a party that 12 months or so out from an election has a reasonable chance of unseating Howard.
Internal spats, and continued perceptions of Beazley as a lovable, brainy bear but without the steel for real leadership, will sorely dent that potential.
A Senate defeat brought about by rebellion within the ranks could be crippling.
Top Australian unionist sides with 'foe' on IVF
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.