Outspoken Labor MP Julia Irwin announced her retirement from politics this week, but she also had some harsh words for her own party.

Branch-stacking she claims, is alive and well in her electorate and is crippling the effective running of local branches across the country.

Faction leaders are often accused of secretly paying for multiple, bogus, ALP memberships in order to get control of local branches.

Three years after Kevin Rudd declared inner-party factionalism dead, 2SER's David Fanner looks at branch-stacking, and how it continues to affect Australian politics.