A coalition of powerful Victorian unions is demanding the Australian Labor Party return millions in fees after being shut out from voting in the preselection of candidates for the federal election, after a court ruled in their favour late on Friday.

Victorian Supreme Court judge Tim Ginnane ordered an injunction late on Friday to freeze Labor’s preselection process to hear a fast-tracked legal showdown on the dispute starting on May 27. Labor had been seeking to finalise preselection for 22 federal seats in Victoria on Friday,