Former union leader David Harrison quits Labor Party, warning it has lost the plot Former union chief David Harrison says Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her predecessor Kevin Rudd had trashed Labor's values with "crass politics." ONE of Queensland's former union powerbrokers has quit the Labor party after 36 years, warning it has "lost the plot" and is being ruined by factional power struggles. In a scathing critique of his party, David Harrison said Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her predecessor Kevin Rudd had trashed Labor's values with "crass politics." Mr Harrison warned Labor was controlled by a small cabal who were only interested in petty power struggles. A self-described "rusted on" Labor supporter, Mr Harrison was president of the Queensland Council of Unions for a decade until 2004 and AMWU secretary for 24 years. Larry versus Barry in tussle for Barnaby Joyce's Senate spot The former union boss said Labor needed to restrict the power of factions if it was to appeal to more voters, but warned this was only likely to happen if the party was wiped out at the federal election. "For change to happen, there has got to be a cataclysmic act like the severe flogging they received in Queensland," he told The Courier-Mail. The Labor Party will not be a party that attracts a broader group of people while the control mechanisms are in the hands of so few people and the power blocs aren't challenged. Frankly, reality says that the trade unions cannot continue to have the influence in a broader-based party that they have enjoyed for the last hundred years. Mr Harrison said an AMWU official tried to convince him to renew his party membership, but the only reason offered was so he could vote in internal party ballots. Is that what it's all about? Getting the numbers?" he said. That just speaks volumes for where the party has lost the plot. During his time as a union leader, Mr Harrison was an outspoken critic of leadership tussles between Simon Crean and Kim Beazley, and advocacy of free trade by Mr Rudd and Craig Emerson. He is now the chairman of manufacturing advisory company QMI Solutions, and has kept his criticism to himself in recent years despite growing dismay with Labor. He mocked Ms Gillard's repeated use of the phrase "Labor values," saying this just alienated voters. I am horrified by the crass politics. There are no Labor values in the stuff that's going on.