Inside Labor’s bloody factional battle on the Gold Coast in the lead-up to the State election

LABOR is imploding due to an intense factional battle on the Gold Coast which threatens to ruin its chance of finally winning back seats on the Glitter Strip.

Meaghan Scanlon about to vote. Photo: Jerad Williams

AN intense factional battle on the Gold Coast is threatening to ruin Labor’s chance of winning back seats on the Glitter Strip.

ALP members are furious after Labor left lawyer Meaghan Scanlon beat veteran party campaigner Michael Riordan in a tight preselection battle for Gaven.

Party insiders estimate Ms Scanlon won by 0.14 per cent of the vote and claim her victory was due to the support of local-based Senator Murray Watt and the United Voice union.

“It’s a scandal,” a Labor source said. “Factional politics prior to Murray coming to the Gold Coast didn’t happen.

“Michael won the branch vote 14-6 but was done over in the electoral colleges (involving the unions). There are people on the Left, Right and in between gut-wrenched over this.”

Experienced and Coast ALP identity Michael Riordan. Picture: JERAD WILLIAMS

Mr Riordan is entrenched in the Nerang and Gaven branch and doubts are surfacing about how much support Ms Scanlon, who is an adviser to Senator Watt, will receive on the ground from members.

“One of the most well-respected people has been taken out in a preselection,” the Labor source said. “We want nothing to do with the campaign now.”

Gaven was one of the last seats to be decided at the 2015 Queensland poll with Mr Riordan finally conceding after falling only 912 votes short of the LNP’s Sid Cramp.

Ms Scanlon improved Labor’s vote by 3.9 per cent when she first stood against LNP MP Stuart Robert in Fadden during the 2016 federal election.

But Riordan supporters believe Labor should have achieved a better result than reducing Mr Robert’s margin by only 3.3 per cent.

A senior Coast Labor source, supportive of both Mr Riordan and Ms Scanlon, blames the party’s powerbrokers for the Gaven fallout.

Meaghan Scanlon photographed when first standing for the ALP in the seat of Fadden. Pic by Luke Marsden.

“I’m absolutely furious. Michael is absolutely devastated. I think about all the work he has put in,” the senior Labor source said.

“The old Labor Party gave people a fair go. You didn’t turn up and get a seat. Meaghan is a nice young woman. She hasn’t done anything here.

“It’s factional, the Left has said they’re taking over the Coast, and they have. If Meaghan had been in the party for a couple of years and done the footwork it would be OK, but it seems that she had been put up as a Left candidate.”

The ALP has yet to recover after losing four seats in 2012, ending an era where experienced MPs like Peter Lawlor, Christine Smith and Margaret Keech held seats.

Ms Scanlon in a statement yesterday said her parents had owned a shop at Nerang and she was honoured to be preselected for a seat in the area.

“For far too long the Gold Coast has been taken for granted by a wall of LNP MPs,” she said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Labor Government had a strong record of delivering for the Coast and believed Ms Scanlon would be a tenacious advocate for Gaven residents.

“I want Meaghan on my team to continue the fight for the health, education and infrastructure needs of the Coast,” she said.

Senator Watt said the preselection processes were not about picking people based on their factional links.

“They are about putting forward the best, most energetic candidates, to take up the fight for the Gold Coast in State Parliament.

“I’m confident Meaghan Scanlon will bring incredible energy and the commitment required to fight for her hometown, not more of the same, lazy inaction from the LNP.”