Disability executive Carol Berry turns Labor frontrunner for federal seat of Whitlam

Carol Berry is emerging as the likely candidate to succeed retiring Labor MP Stephen Jones in the NSW electorate of Whitlam.

Disability support executive Carol Berry. Picture: Facebook

Former Greens party national secretary Carol Berry has all but been confirmed as the Labor candidate to replace Stephen Jones in the NSW electorate of Whitlam.

The disability sector worker, who took over the top job at the Disability Trust in January 2023, is emerging as the frontrunner to succeed the retiring Labor MP.

Mr Jones last week announced his decision to step away from politics after 15 years, leaving the party with limited time to select a candidate before the federal election, which must take place on or before May 17.

Ms Berry previously served as an adviser to Greens MP Michael Organ after he won the federal seat of Cunningham from Labor in a 2002 by-election.

She also ran as the Greens candidate for that same seat in the 2001 federal election and later contested a NSW Senate seat for the party in 2004.

Ms Berry switched allegiance to Labor, campaigning for Ryan Park in his bid for the seat of Keira in 2011 while being a member of the Thirroul branch.

Given that Labor’s preselection process typically takes between four and six weeks, Anthony Albanese is reportedly expected to request an intervention from the party’s national executive to expedite the selection process for Whitlam. A similar move was made in the Sydney electorate of Barton, sparking discontent and accusations of overreach by the Prime Minister in state-level matters.

Ms Berry, Mr Albanese and the federal Labor Party were all contacted for comment.

At this stage, Keely O’Brien, general manager of corporate affairs for the Council of Australian Life Insurers and a former political staffer for Julia Gillard, is the only person to have publicly expressed interest in the seat.

Other names previously floated include Sally McManus, secretary of the ACTU, and former Australian Workers Union secretary Daniel Walton. Both have confirmed they will not be running.

Mr Jones was given the job of Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services in 2022, his first ministerial appointments.

Ms Berry is chief executive of The Disability Trust, a Wollongong-based non-profit organisation that provides disability support and advocacy. She has also worked with the National Disability Insurance Scheme and held positions on the boards of the Council for Intellectual Disability and the Australian Council of Social Service.

Whitlam, which takes in parts of the Illawarra region and the Southern Highlands, has a notional margin of 8.3 per cent.