Cunningham: Alison Byrnes Labor’s pick to replace outgoing Sharon Bird

Labor have confirmed long-time staffer Alison Byrnes will run in the very safe red seat of Cunningham which has been held by the ALP since 2004.

Long-time Labor staffer Alison Byrnes has been unveiled as the party’s candidate in Cunningham, the seat vacated by the retirement of her boss Sharon Bird.

Ms Byrnes, the wife of popular state Wollongong MP Paul Scully, automatically becomes the hot favourite to win the seat which Ms Bird has held since 2004, and with a 13.4 per cent margin since the 2019 federal election.

Labor has claimed Cunningham, a seat which runs from Helensburgh in the north to Port Kembla in the south, on all but one occasion.

Sharon Bird has been the Member for Cunningham since 2004. Picture: Dylan Arvela

However, Ms Brynes said that she wouldn‘t be second-guessing voters.

“I won’t be taking anything for granted,” she said at her candidacy announcement in Woonona on Friday where she was flanked by Ms Bird and Whitlam MP Stephen Brown.

“I will be working hard over the coming months to earn the trust of the local people.

“Sharon has been a mentor of mine and a very good friend and I’m quietly concerned about taking over and a little bit emotional as well, but I am confident I can continue delivering on the work Sharon has been doing over the last 18 years.

When quizzed about what role Mr Scully may play in her campaign, Ms Byrnes said they try not to mix their work and home life before laughing off the suggestion becoming a member of the federal parliament would have a dramatic effect on their relationship.

“Paul and I share very similar values, but we have always maintained very separate careers,” she said.

“He is obviously supportive of me, as I am of him, but we have had very separate careers.

“As a staff member already I already travel to Canberra for 20 weeks of the year for most of my adult life so I don’t think there will be too much of a change there.”

Ms Byrnes had to overcome the surprise, and short-lived, campaign of Misha Zelinsky, the national assistant secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union, to earn the Labor preselection.

The senior union figure is seen by some in the ALP as a rising star, but a 2012 ebook co-authored by Mr Zelinsky, which was “degrading to women”, has seen the 37-year-old marginalised by many senior Labor members, especially in the NSW Right faction.

“Everyone has an opportunity to put their name forward and it’s up to the local rank-and-file members to make a choice,” Ms Brynes said.

“I am really pleased we got a rank-and-file preselection down here and it was an opportunity for branch members to engage and talk to all the candidates.”

Alison Byrnes has been unveiled as Labor’s candidate in Cunningham - the seat vacated by the retirement of her boss Sharon Bird.

Bird held the seat by 13.4% in 2019 and has been the member since 2004. #auspolpic.twitter.com/i7tkR1d47e

— Dylan Arvela (@dylanarvela) February 24, 2022

Ms Byrnes outlined her priorities were to improve government service delivery and grow jobs and investment opportunities in the region by taking action on reducing emissions.

“Every day I deal with people who are struggling to access the services they need when they need them most,” she said.

“The simple fact is that we can and should be doing better. And an Albanese Labor Government will work to make sure everyone has access to the services they need.

“The things we have in the Illawarra - a strong industrial base, a skilled workforce, a university and TAFE, and a deep water port - these are all the attributes

that are needed to grow jobs and industry in the area, to help the rest of the country reduce its emissions.”

Green by name, Green by nature

The Coalition are yet to announce a candidate for Cunningham, a seat bookmakers Sportsbet have Labor winning at $1.01 odds.

However, there are already four long-shot challengers to Ms Byrne in Michael Glover (Liberal Democratic Party), Benjamin Britton (United Australia Party), Alexis Garnaut-Miller (Citizens Party) and Dylan Green who announced he was running for the Greens at the University of Wollongong on Wednesday.

The only time Cunningham wasn’t held by Labor was the 2002 by-election when Michael Organ, a Green, beat Ms Bird by 4.46 per cent.

Mr Green, alongside Greens candidate for Whitlam and NSW senator Mehreen Faruqi, chose UOW as the venue to call for free education for all students from kindergarten to TAFE and university.

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“Imagine if we had free education from early childhood learning to the end of your university degree,” Mr Green, 23, said.

“The economic benefit Australia would achieve through a better educated and enabled population is immense.

“We have to have policies and strategies in place now so that existing workers are not left behind when large energy companies divest themselves from old fossil fuel industries, or when local steel producers move to green energy alternatives.”

For those wondering, Mr Green is 33-1 to cause what would be one the election’s biggest upsets.