A senior Victorian Labor strategist has slammed the party’s “top down” Right faction for failing to embrace democracy and policy reform following Saturday’s otherwise staid state conference at Moonee Valley.

In a searing internal post-mortem, obtained by Crikey, Left faction secretary Andrew Giles also writes that the party’s twice-annual 600-delegate conference should be replaced by a single two-day conference to enable more free-flowing debate.

Left MPs led the policy debate on conference floor, Giles claims, while their Right counterparts were missing in action, possibly distracted by Ballarat Labor’s excellent kransky sausages.

“[Left] Frontbenchers Steve Herbert, Lily D’Ambrosio, Jenny Mikakos, Brian Tee, Richard Wynne and Gavin Jennings all showed their respect for the forum. In marked contrast to their Right counterparts, they put their policy priorities before members and affiliates,” the Gavin Jennings adviser wrote.

“Later in the day, more substantial policy work was done — all of it driven by the Left,” he said.

A senior Labor Right source dismissed the criticisms as “grandstanding” this morning. “I was there and I don’t think that was part of the debate at all,” he said.

In a wide-ranging critique, Giles says the party should capitalise on the multiple scandals surrounding embattled Frankston MP Geoff Shaw to ensure Ted Baillieu becomes a one-term Premier and commended Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews on his swingeing address to the faithful assembled deep in Bill Shorten’s Maribyrnong electorate.

Media reports mentioned just a handful of the urgency motions on the table on Saturday, including the right of appeal for asylum seekers given an adverse security assessment by ASIO. Scribes passed over others aimed at banning armed drones and the proper implementation of the Bracks-Carr-Faulkner reform agenda and also missed the fiery debate over the direct election of the ALP president (which was carried, but not by the majority required to change the rules).

Some Right figures were opposed to the change and they believe the vote should be channelled through unions their factional associates control.

The Left wasn’t happy: “It seems that losing that ballot means elements of the Right will continue to argue against opening up any process to contestability — and so they are arguing for a top-down party that is fundamentally anti-democratic,” Giles wrote.

Despite the sporadic rancour, the scene was a far cry from the vicious brawling witnessed in previous years, as the factions doubled down in their shared quest to eject Ted in 2014.

The party is currently enjoying a rare outbreak of factional peace after the Shop Assistants’ Union formally rounded behind the broader Left-Right stability pact in January. The National Union of Workers, however, remains on the outer (although its frontbenchers would appear to be insulated from any preselection thrill kills).

SDA delegates — who enraged the Left last year by abandoning a debate on gay marriage — were making their enmity with the NUW clear and many delegates seemed pleased with a confident speech and major role allocated to deputy Opposition Leader and ex-SDA organiser James Merlino.

Senator David Feeney’s sub-grouping, weakened by the disaffiliation of Kathy Jackson’s disgraced HSUeast, is also back in the tent, with talk of “accommodation” bubbling — Crikey understands that members of Feeney’s clique caucused with the broader Right on Saturday, encompassing the so-called “ShortCons” and the Shop Assistants’ Union.

However, Feeney’s core support remains difficult to gauge — rank-and-file delegates associated with talented multiple recruiters Burhan Yigit, George Seitz and Nazih El-Asmar continue to present as malleable. The specific question of how Feeney will avoid the unwinnable No.3 “death spot” in an imminent Senate election remains sadly unresolved.

Snoops reported some heroic resistance to local government rules reform by NUW-aligned councillors from the cities of Monash and Kingston. But the renegades failed in their bid to effectively construct their controversial “social democracy in two municipalities” agenda.

Other minor highlights included some emerging Labor figures who gave addresses from the podium — Leon Carter from the Finance Sector Union and media-savvy AMWU assistant secretary Leigh Diehm saddled up for a set-piece on jobs and skills.

The next state conference will be held in October, presumably at the same racetrack that also hosts numerous poker machines. In future, the Left will be pushing for the six-month interregnum to be replaced by a 12-month gap.

“Left members have had for some time around the format of state conference should be addressed. I continue to be of the view that we need to move to one two-day conference a year, enabling delegates and members to do more than sit in their seats as we push through business with an eye to quorum,” Giles’ missive said.