Queensland ‘blow-in’ picked to run in Shorten’s safe seat

Federal Labor’s decision to hand-pick candidates for working-class seats has outraged state ministers who argue the “blow-ins” risk a voter backlash at the upcoming election, exposing one of the deepest splits in the party in years.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last month gave Labor’s national executive the power to decide Victorian positions, stripping locals of control. On Friday, the central panel anointed likely future MPs in three safe outer-suburban Melbourne seats: Gorton, Maribyrnong and Calwell.

Jo Briskey, Alice Jordan-Baird and Basem Abdo are fresh Labor candidates.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Water policy expert Alice Jordan-Baird, who grew up in the eastern suburbs but has lived in the west for years, will contest outgoing MP Brendan O’Connor’s seat of Gorton, while Queenslander Jo Briskey will run in retiring minister Bill Shorten’s seat of Maribyrnong after winning factional contests.

The safety of the seats has made them factional prizes, with a group aligned to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, federal MP Sam Rae and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) vying against other Right groups for Gorton. Briskey is aligned with Queensland Left faction powerbroker Gary Bullock, while Basem Abdo, Labor’s candidate in Calwell, is the pick of outgoing MP Maria Vamvakinou.

State government Jobs and Industry Minister Natalie Hutchins, an ally of Shorten and frequent critic of the Marles-aligned group, said: “It’s disappointing that the national ALP today has chosen a candidate for Gorton, with no connection to the area … over an experienced local.”

“I hope this is not Fowler 2.0,” she added, referring to former NSW premier Kristina Keneally’s 2022 loss of a safe, working-class federal Labor seat that was far from her home on Sydney’s northern beaches.

Labor holds all three seats on large margins, but the party has suffered significant swings against it in recent years, with voters turning to minor parties and the opposition.

Briskey, who moved to Melbourne in 2019, is regarded as a talented former unionist by her backers, while Jordan-Baird’s supporters say she has a smart policy mind, with each touted for long careers.

Victorian Infrastructure Minister Danny Pearson signed a petition that expressed “outrage” at the national takeover of candidate picks.

In a separate letter from the secretary of the Maribyrnong branch, Rod Gurry, to national officials, Briskey is described as the “blow-in from Bonner [in Queensland]”, adding that local members’ outrage should be heard “in the comforts of The Lodge in Canberra”.

“We haven’t learnt the lesson from [Fowler] about parachuting someone in from the other side of town.”

The contest for Gorton has upended traditional factional lines. Nine of the 10 members of the national executive who belong to the Right, including the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA), voted for councillor Ranka Rasic. One member of the Right, the TWU-aligned Rae, voted with the Left.

The 10 members of the Left on the 21-member executive and federal minister Andrew Giles, voting on behalf of Albanese, also voted for Jordan-Baird, and she won 12-9. It meant Albanese, the Left and just one member of the Right overruled the Right’s preferred choice.

A member of the Right allied with the AWU, who asked not to named so they could speak freely, said it was unprecedented for the Left to choose the Right’s candidate.

“We haven’t learnt the lesson from [Fowler] about parachuting someone in from the other side of town,” they said.

The split is significant because it shows relations between right-wing groups that have worked with the Left to control Victorian Labor for years – the SDA and forces aligned with Marles and the TWU – have broken down, casting doubt about the long-term power-sharing arrangement.

The co-operation of that group could have implications for the federal leadership of Labor whenever Albanese’s leadership ends because Marles is seen as a leadership option.

A senior Right source said the SDA’s decision to vote with the AWU and not the TWU did not necessarily mean an end to the power-sharing arrangement that had dominated Labor for years since a scandal created by former minister Adem Somyurek sparked a federal takeover of Victorian Labor.

“There are tensions, but it can be sorted through,” they said.

Party rules bar the trio of candidates from speaking to the media.

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