This was published 11 years ago
Former mayor selected to replace axed Labor candidate in Hotham
A 32-year-old former mayor has won the messy preselection battle for the safe Labor seat of Hotham following the sacking of a candidate who verbally abused a wheelchair-bound councillor.
Clare O'Neil was unanimously endorsed on Monday by Labor's National Executive as the new candidate for the federal seat in Melbourne's south-east, which is being vacated by former Labor leader Simon Crean.
Clare O'Neil, when she was a 23-year-old mayor of Greater Dandenong, with dumped Labor candidate Geoff Lake, then president of the Municipal Association of Victoria and Monash councillor.Credit: Ken Irwin
Ms O'Neil is a management consultant, who at 23 became the youngest female mayor in Australian history when she was elected mayor of Greater Dandenong.
She is backed by the National Union of Workers faction and has arts and law degrees from Monash University and a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University, where she studied on a Fulbright scholarship.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd asked that former candidate Geoff Lake be disendorsed on Saturday after it re-emerged that he had verbally abused a fellow councillor in 2002 when he was 22 years old.
But Ms O'Neil described Mr Lake as a good friend and said he had been misportrayed in the media.
''He has apologised multiple times over many years and I believe him when he says he is sorry,'' she said.
Ms O'Neil said she did not have anything to disclose about her past, and would spend the next few weeks speaking to Hotham residents about their concerns.
''What has happened in the last 48 hours has been as much a surprise to me as anyone but we have the situation as it stands and my top priority is spending all the time between now until election time in Hotham talking to the local people there.''
She would not weigh into the factional tensions among Labor's Right, which have been inflamed by the messy preselection.
''I don't have a comment, honestly, I'm not engaged with it.''
In the lead-up to the initial preselection battle for the seat, Mr Lake said he was the victim of anonymous ''shit sheets'' being spread by factional rivals. He also accused Labor Party officials conducting the Hotham ballot of abuse, intimidation and unscrupulous conduct.
Rosemary Barker – a member of the right Labor Unity faction lead by Bill Shorten who lost the preselection to Mr Lake last month – nominated for the seat again but withdrew her nomination at the last minute.
Ms O'Neil lives in the CBD but said she would move into the electorate, which includes Moorabbin, Dingley Village, Bentleigh East and parts of Oakleigh, Carnegie, Cheltenham, Clayton, Noble Park and Springvale.
Project engineer Andrew Turnour has also been named as Labor’s replacement candidate for the north Queensland seat of Kennedy, held by long-time MP Bob Katter.
Labor’s existing candidate for Kennedy, Ken Robertson, quit on Saturday after a furore over comments he made about Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, including that he was bigoted and wanted to bring back the White Australia policy.
Mr Turnour contested the seat at the last election, when he attracted just 20 per cent of the primary vote.