Victorian Labor factional peace deal sparks renewed hostilities

A Supreme Court challenge over the federal intervention into Labor’s Victorian branch is set to be lodged within days.

A Supreme Court challenge to Anthony Albanese’s bid to rush through preselections for Labor’s safe seats in Victoria is set to be lodged as early as Thursday.

The Herald Sun can reveal eight unions are behind the explosive legal action and have called in top QC and former Federal Court judge Ron Merkel to represent them.

The unions want an injunction to stop the three-day preselection process — which is due to finish on Friday afternoon — as part of a broader legal challenge to the federal intervention that gave Labor’s national executive control over the Victorian branch of the party.

The preselection stoush is centred on the new Melbourne electorate of Hawke, which is expected to be a safe Labor seat.

The national executive is poised to hand the plum seat to former state secretary Sam Rae, which has prompted the court action from his factional rivals who would prefer a female candidate.

It is understood the Health Services Union, the Health Workers Union, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, the Australian Workers’ Union, the Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union, the United Firefighters Union, the Communication Workers Union and the Meat Industry Employees Union are all part of the challenge.

Sources close to the case told the Herald Sun an application was likely to be lodged on Thursday or Friday morning.

The challenge would likely focus on the legality of the federal intervention into the Victorian branch — spearheaded by the Opposition Leader and Daniel Andrews last year — which took voting rights from party members and also broke up the factional power structure.

A new internal power-sharing agreement was struck earlier this week between the Premier’s Socialist Left faction and the Labor Unity group headed by Mr Albanese’s deputy Richard Marles.

Mr Albanese then ordered the preselection for all safe Labor seats to be finished this week, which would see Mr Marles’s candidate Sam Rae — a former party state secretary — claim the new electorate of Hawke.

But allies of former Labor leader Bill Shorten are pushing for a woman to take the plum seat, as several unions debate whether to seek legal relief.

The Industrial Left, which includes the powerful CFMEU, is yet to make a decision on whether it will participate in a legal fight or work on its own arrangement with Labor Unity that could secure it greater representation in parliament.

With the party already fighting off legal action by ex-state minister Marlene Kairouz, a new court battle could chaos for Mr Andrews and Mr Albanese and inflame internal divisions.

Former state government minister Kay Setches. Picture: David Crosling

FORMER MP JOINS RACE FOR NEW SEAT

A former state government minister has entered the Labor preselection race for the plum new federal seat in Melbourne, saying she could not bear to see it “go to the boys”.

Kay Setches, a state MP from 1982 to 1992, said she would nominate for the electorate of Hawke, which is at the centre of a fierce factional fight, with ex-state secretary Sam Rae favoured to win.

However, senior Labor figures are agitating for a woman to be chosen as the candidate, and Ms Setches emailed supporters on Wednesday afternoon to encourage other women to nominate also.

She said Labor’s affirmative action targets to bring more women into parliament “now appear to be under threat”, and accused the party’s Right factions of being “recalcitrant regarding the preselection of women MPs”.

If Mr Rae wins the preselection, it would see Labor’s federal female representation “go backwards for the first time in history”, the 76-year-old said.

“I cannot stand by and watch another safe seat go to the boys,” Ms Setches said in her email.

Her son is Plumbing and Pipe Trades Employees Union secretary Earl Setches, an influential factional figure in the union movement.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese, Former Leader Bill Shorten and Richard Marles have all drawn in to the discussions. Picture Kym Smith

It comes after Victorian Corrections Minister Natalie Hutchins threw her name in the mix for Hawke, a move which sparked discontent in state government ranks.

Party figures close to her invited dozens of Labor members to an “ALP Women for Hawke” Facebook page to lobby for a female candidate to take the prized new seat.

She also scheduled a Wednesday night online meeting to discuss the matter.

But a party source said it was a “last-minute power grab” from those linked to Shorten and questioned who would attend the zoom meeting.

“The deal is done. This is not how we do things,” the source said.

Victorian Major Events Minister Martin Pakula criticised the new factional deal, which left out his National Union of Workers powerbase.

“Apparently my seat is in the contest column so I’ll have to go and find some factional operative and find out whether they still consider me worthy of preselection,” he said.

The national executive is only planning to lock in lower house preselections this week, delaying a mooted challenge to veteran senator Kim Carr.

While Left forces are seeking to remove Senator Carr, the Herald Sun understands they could be required to shift their support from preferred candidate Ryan Batchelor to a woman, given Mr Rae’s preselection would pose a risk to the party meeting its affirmative action targets. 

The party’s left signed a stability deal with Labor Unity, a group of right-aligned unions and rank and file members represented by federal deputy leader Richard Marles.

It sets out an agreement on preselections for the next two elections, including for the federal seat of Hawke.

Major Events Minister Martin Pakula. Picture: Daniel Pockett

Mr Pakula said he had been in the party for a long time and seen similar deals come and go.

“Apparently this deal’s been done and they’ve put certain designations against certain seats and no one’s bothered to have a conversation with me about it.”

Asked whether Youth Justice Minister Natalie Hutchins should remain in Cabinet if she was considering a federal tilt, Mr Pakula said he had no reason to believe she would do so.

Treasurer Tim Pallas on Tuesday said he hoped Ms Hutchins remained with the Victorian cabinet.

“She’s been an outstanding minister … and I hope she stays with us,” he said.

“(But) we live in a democracy where everyone is entitled to run for office and ultimately she will make a call.”

When asked if it was appropriate that a cabinet colleague was looking at moving to a Federal seat, Mr Pallas said it “was a matter for the Minister herself”.

If Ms Hutchins did decide to ditch the cabinet for a role in Canberra, Mr Pallas was confident there was a “considerable level of talent” in the party that could fill her role.

Other state government ministers remained tight-lipped outside parliament, when questioned about Ms Hutchin’s motives.

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes and Health Minister Martin Foley both refused to be drawn on the matter.

“I don’t know if there’s any truth to the speculation that Ms Hutchins is interested in a Federal seat. I haven’t spoken to her in detail,” Ms Symes said.

Mr Foley added: “Preselection matters are a matter for the party”.

INSIDE THE POWER STRUGGLE

The internal power-sharing agreement between Daniel Andrews’s Socialist Left faction and the Labor Unity group, overseen by deputy federal Labor leader Richard Marles, was signed on Monday night, despite mounting anger from those left out.

Labor sources said Mr Marles’s preferred candidate in the new seat of Hawke — former party state secretary Sam Rae — was also in a strong position to win out.

Anthony Albanese weighed in on Monday to fast-track preselections for Labor’s safe seats in Victoria, in a bid to end the infighting over Hawke as early as this week.

Labor’s national executive has called for preselection nominations for its safe federal seats in Victoria from 12pm on Tuesday.

Nominations will close at 10am on Friday.

While Mr Albanese has vowed to protect sitting MPs, the executive will hold a ballot if required at 2pm on Friday.

This could come into play if Labor women including Ms Hutchins decide to run for the new seat of Hawke against Mr Rae.

The Herald Sun understands senior party figures were considering court action on Monday night to stop Labor’s national executive blocking local members from voting — a result of the federal intervention approved by the Premier and the Opposition Leader last year.

That intervention came after branch-stacking allegations were made against Labor powerbroker Adem Somyurek, which forced him out of the party, ended his factional peace deal and created a power vacuum that Mr Marles and former leader Bill Shorten have sought to fill.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and Federal Opposition leader Anthony Albanese.

Ms Hutchins was also considering throwing her hat in the ring for Hawke, as forces aligned with Mr Shorten lobbied for a woman to take the plum spot in Canberra.

But a state MP said: “Everyone knows this has got nothing to do with gender, it’s about factions.”

“It is really disappointing one of our ministers would use the gender card in such a way … Everyone can see through this,” she said.

Earlier in the week, Ms Hutchins posted on Facebook to organise an online meeting on Wednesday night for “Labor Right Women” about the Hawke seat.

But the move sparked a backlash and has divided her own state caucus.

Discussions were also ongoing between Labor Unity and another faction containing the CFMEU and the RTBU, the Industrial Left, but no decision has been made.

United Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall joined with union chiefs representing meat workers and postal workers on Monday to attack the new stability deal as a “recipe for chaos and turmoil”.

Mr Marshall and his allies have been fighting to protect Labor senator Kim Carr, who is facing an uphill battle to hang on to his preselection after almost three decades in Canberra.

In a statement, they said it was “supreme arrogance” to exclude several major unions from the agreement designed to “protect or eject” specific MPs from parliament.

“It will cause massive dislocation in the state arena,” they said.

“The agreement will undermine the state office at a time when the Labor Party is under acute electoral challenge, especially with speculation growing about the future direction and composition of the state government.”

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