‘This would be embarrassing’: Deputy PM’s candidate for safe seat could be ‘rolled’

A Labor candidate backed by Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles could miss out on preselection for Gorton as a split in the Victorian Right faction turns into a fight to handpick the candidate for one of the safest Labor seats.

While sections of the union movement have been in uproar over the federal government’s decision to place the CFMEU into administration and have been highly critical of the ACTU during that process, the factional wheeling-and-dealing for putting union-backed candidates into parliament for the next election continues apace.

Labor candidate for Gorton Alice Jordan-Baird.

Marles and the Transport Workers Union have thrown their support behind Alice Jordan-Baird, a climate change and water policy expert, to be Labor’s candidate for the seat in Melbourne’s western suburbs, which will be vacated by retiring cabinet minister Brendan O’Connor at the next election.

But the Australian Workers Union, which is aligned with retiring cabinet minister Bill Shorten, is backing Brimbank Mayor Ranka Rasic.

And while Jordan-Baird has been favourite because of the support of Marles and the TWU – and because Labor’s federal executive intervened to take over preselections in Victoria last month – the influential Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers Union (SDA) could switch support its support to Rasic.

Labor candidate for Gorton Ranka Rasic

This masthead has spoken to three sources, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely, who said the SDA could switch its support to the AWU-backed candidate to maintain its influence and representation in the caucus with the looming exit of Shorten from parliament.

One of the sources linked to the SDA confirmed the union leadership wanted stability and that “we don’t want the TWU to get too greedy, we want unity, and we don’t want to do over the AWU”.

“This would roll Richard, but it is more about rolling [Labor MP and former Victorian state secretary] Sam Rae. He is getting too greedy and big for his boots, so people want to send a message. First, sort out your own internal issues [in the Victorian division of the TWU, which was recently disbanded] and second, you’re already over-represented in parliament.

“Yes this would be embarrassing for Richard [if Jordan-Baird was defeated by Rasic] but it is particularly a push against Sam.”

Rae is a highly regarded first-term MP who is close to Marles and a key member of the TWU Right faction. He was contacted for comment.

A source in the AWU argued that Rasic had lived in the north-western suburban seat since she moved to Australia from the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, whereas Jordan-Baird was from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs.

“We’re concerned that if [Jordan-Baird] is selected this will be another Fowler and Labor will end up losing the seat to an independent,” the source said.

But a member of the national executive, who asked not to be named so they could speak freely before the meeting, rubbished suggestions that Marles could be rolled over the preselection of a candidate.

“The AWU are telling people they have seven out of 10 votes, but are they really saying that if the PM or DPM expressed a view or made a call on who the candidate should be, that won’t happen? People still think Alice will get it,” they said.

A Left-faction United Workers Union official, Jo Briskey, is in the box seat to take over from Shorten in his seat of Maribyrnong after the next election and the move to install Jordan-Baird would grow the TWU’s influence in caucus at the expense of the AWU.

The matter will be discussed at a meeting of the national executive on Thursday and if a deal can’t be struck within the Right faction to settle on a candidate, the 10 Right-faction aligned members of the national executive – which is Labor’s top internal decision-making body – would then vote on whether to back Jordan-Baird or Rasic.

A source in the AWU said the union had three votes on the national executive and that if the SDA, which has four votes, joined them in backing Rasic then she would claim seven out of 10 Right Faction votes and claim the seat ahead of the Marles-backed candidate.

O’Connor won the seat of Gorton with a two-party preferred vote of 60-40 in the 2022 election.

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