A Victorian Supreme Court injunction has thwarted Anthony Albanese’s attempt to fast-track Victorian preselections.

Victoria’s Supreme Court has blocked Anthony Albanese’s attempt to fast-track preselections in the state.

Health Workers' Union state secretary Diana Asmar.

Victoria’s Supreme Court has blocked Anthony Albanese’s ­attempt to fast-track preselections in the state, thwarting plans for the ALP national executive to rubberstamp candidates in 22 federal seats on Friday, including those held by sitting members and the new seat of Hawke.

National executive had on Tuesday given prospective candidates until 10am on Friday to nominate, with the 21 voting members of the body expected to endorse former Victorian ALP secretary Sam Rae — a factional ally of federal deputy leader Richard Marles — for the new seat on Melbourne’s northwestern outskirts.

The planned endorsement of Mr Rae was part of a “stability deal” agreed last week between the majority of Left and Right factions, which excluded key unions and factional allies of former federal leader Bill Shorten, disgraced former Right powerbroker Adem Somyurek and Left powerbroker Kim Carr.

But a coalition of 10 unions, led by Health Workers Union boss Diana Asmar, challenged the fast-tracking of the preselections in court, arguing rank-and-file ALP members had been disenfranchised by a national takeover of the preselection process.

On Friday afternoon judge Timothy Ginnane extended an injunction preventing preselections from being declared at least until the conclusion of a trial set to begin on May 27.

“I consider that if the candidates were announced and it later was held that the preselection process under the short timetable contained in the federal executive resolution was invalid, then a state of affairs would be created where people who’d been nominated as candidates would then have to stand for another election and that, on the other hand, people who hadn’t had the chance to nominate because of the short ­period would have to stand against people who had already been declared the elected candidate,” Justice Ginnane said.

The injunction will also come as a blow for Premier Daniel ­Andrews, who last year handed the administration of the Victorian ALP to former premier Steve Bracks and former federal deputy leader Jenny Macklin, indefinitely suspending voting rights for Victorian party members and giving national executive the powers to preselect candidates for Victorian seats in the wake of a branch-stacking scandal which saw Mr Somyurek expelled from the party.

The unions’ case is being heard concurrently with a case brought by former Andrews government minister and Somyurek ally Marlene Kairouz, who is appealing against branch-stacking charges laid against her by Mr Bracks and Ms Macklin.

Peter Willis SC, acting for the ALP, earlier argued the “crude realpolitik” of the case was that the 10 unions represented a quarter of the votes of the state conference of the Victorian ALP “at most”.

Ms Asmar said the injunction proved the ALP “can’t silence union members”.