Albanese’s third ‘captain’s call’ raises hackles in factional seat battle

Anthony Albanese has intervened for a third time in a preselection fight for a prize Labor seat, benefiting his own Left faction and infuriating the Right.

Georges River councillor Ashvini Ambihaipahar was chosen last week as Labor’s candidate for the safe Sydney seat of Barton, replacing former Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and new Labor candidate for Barton Ashvini Ambihaipahar.Credit: AAPIMAGE

Albanese joined Ambihaipahar on Monday to announce her candidacy, describing her as “a cracker of a candidate” and someone “who has an enormous commitment to this local community, and someone who I think will really add something to our team as we seek a second term in government”.

Ambihaipahar emphasised her links to the local community and her career as a scientist, then a lawyer and then with the St Vincent de Paul Society and as a state candidate.

But her selection has triggered serious consternation within the ALP.

The NSW Labor general secretary Dominic Ofner wrote a letter to Labor’s national secretary Paul Erickson protesting against the intervention, the 10 Labor Right faction members of the 21-member national executive boycotted the vote and some key Right faction unions are weighing whether to withhold election donations from the party’s national office.

The National Executive, Labor’s top decision-making body, comprises 10 members each from the Right and Left. Albanese, a member of the Left, has the tie-breaking vote.

Ash Ambihaipahar, running for Oatley last year, takes a selfie with the prime minister’s fiancee Jodie Haydon and the premier’s wife Anna Minns.Credit: AAP

Ambihaipahar’s selection is the third high-profile intervention by the executive this year to install candidates favoured by the prime minister and his Left faction.

Despite rank-and-file members calling for a ballot of all members, Jo Briskey and Alice Jordan-Baird were handpicked this year for the safe Melbourne seats of Maribyrnong and Gorton when they’re vacated by veteran Labor MPs Bill Shorten and Brendan O’Connor.

The Right believes Barton, held on a 15.5 per cent margin, was supposed to revert to it under a deal struck in 2016, but the Left argues the deal no longer holds as the Right was given a Left seat, Parramatta, in 2022.

Multiple sources on Labor’s national executive and three federal MPs confirmed to this masthead the Right was furious with the prime minister and the Left faction over the handling of the pre-selection, even as they conceded that Ambihaipahar was a better candidate than former state MP Shaoquett Moselmane, who stood for the Right.

“The Right abstained from voting. It was our silent protest to Albo to say ‘f--- you’ for interfering in preselection,” one MP, who asked not to be named, said.

A second federal MP observed that “for a guy who said he wouldn’t act like a faction leader, he is being very factional”.

Both those MPs, and two members of the National Executive, said that there was talk in Right-aligned unions such as the powerful Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association about withholding donations from Labor’s national office and re-directing funds to state divisions ahead of the federal election.

”But that could change if the PM reaches out and seeks to reconcile things,” the first MP said.

SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer did not respond to a request for comment.

A senior figure in the SDA who asked not to be named confirmed there were discussions under way about withholding donations from federal Labor, but downplayed the likelihood of it happening.

“There’s too much on the line at this election,” the union figure said, referring to the Barton, Gorton and Maribyrnong pre-selections.

“We know Dutton wants to unwind Labor’s industrial relations changes. The Right is pissed off and there is a lot of unhappiness with how the PM is using his casting vote to resolve these disputes.”

But a third member of the executive said Ambihaipahar was the stand-out, whereas the Right had not been able to settle on their candidate.

“We are doing whatever we can to win the next election and it has nothing to do with factions,” they said.

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