Federal MPs such as Labor's Anthony Byrne and the Liberals' Michael Sukkar, the federal Assistant Treasurer, are currently embroiled in these scandals. Byrne has admitted under oath that this is the case and has resigned from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. He should go. Sukkar has denied the allegations, as has his Victorian colleague, Kevin Andrews. Several Victorian state Labor ministers, including Adem Somyurek, have resigned or been sacked from their positions. Bigger scalps may follow, as it seems this is a cultural problem which party leaders tolerate. For many in party politics, factional work has become indistinguishable from public service. It is so common it has become business as usual.

These recent revelations about both the Labor and Liberal parties demonstrate such activities are not just evidence of a few random bad apples within the major parties, but the latest confirmation of a systemic problem that has been known about for years. According to Somyurek, Labor's factions were competing in branch-stacking "hammer and tongs" when he joined the party almost 30 years ago. It often involves manipulation of youth groups, ethnic communities, and religious denominations, among others. The view of Somyurek is that the Left faction discovered ethnic branch-stacking. There is both hard evidence and reputable claims of abuse of the system from most states, not just Victoria, and both major parties.

The obvious conclusion is that political party-style democracy, notwithstanding the presence of many genuine party faithful in all parties, is rotten to the core. So-called party heavyweights, often uncritically lauded by the media and academia, pull the strings, and factional operators do the legwork. Genuine party members are their first victims, but Australian democracy is the ultimate casualty.

Party authorities can attempt to make branch-stacking illegal or try to lessen the worst of its impacts on internal party affairs, but they cannot stamp it out. They may even turn a blind eye because they themselves are beneficiaries, either directly because it underpins their own party positions, or indirectly because it boosts party membership numbers and replenishes party coffers.

Party leaders can swear to take on the factions and to eliminate their illegal activities, but they too often owe their position to factional support and fear destabilisation. Time and again, party leaders - even when they hold office as prime minister or premier - have shown that they cannot control their party organisations.

Branch-stacking is not illegal, per se, because political parties are lightly regulated private organisations. It only becomes illegal under certain circumstances, one of which is when individual party members do not reside at the address stated on their electoral registration form. More common, revealed in the current allegations against the Victorian branches of both major parties, is the use of publicly funded staff of members of parliament for factional purposes, or the use of public funds to pay the dues of members newly recruited in branch stacks.

These illegalities are not the main point, however. They are like the petty conflict of interest (undeclared membership of a club) which temporarily brought down Senator Bridget McKenzie during the sports rorts affair. The larger point was the broader dysfunctional activity of sports rorts, just as the larger point is factional branch-stacking rather than misuse of public funds.

Rather than serving the public, these electoral staff are spending their time serving the faction at the instruction of members of parliament. They become factional administrators by maintaining databases, administering factional business, and networking among factional representatives to take control of party branches.

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The prevalence of factional branch-stacking on both sides of politics is not just a case of boys playing with their toys in their own backyard. Internal party competition leads to widespread personal disparagement of colleagues. Sukkar has now apologised for his slagging off of his moderate factional opponent, Senator Jane Hume.

This type of nasty behaviour is common in Parliament. It is further evidence that the well-documented bullying, especially of Liberal women such as Julia Banks, during the 2018 federal Liberal leadership contest grew out of a toxic culture produced by factional competition and a "whatever it takes" culture.

This behaviour also must interfere with teamwork, good leadership and governance at the cabinet level. The frequent leadership changes in recent federal politics come as no surprise when we look at the factional character of their party rooms.

It is also a likely consequence that the numbers game and the win-at-all-costs attitudes are factors in encouraging pork-barrelling and rorting by ministers who have never known any different.

Factions will not go away, because they are an escalator for aspirants to elected office and leadership positions. This behaviour is learned by young electoral officers and ministerial staff, and then reproduced when they themselves rise to senior positions of power and authority.

The wider community - the vast majority who are not party members - are faced with the dilemma that to vote for these parties without insisting on reform is to reward the stackers and bag men. But there are alternatives - including voting for independents and minor parties. This might be the shock treatment the major parties need.