Ex-MP quits Labor over ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew’s preselection

A former Queensland MP has quit the ALP in disgust over the hand-picking of surfing legend Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew to stand as a Labor candidate.

MP Christine Smith when she lobbied for a beachfront Police Beat at Burleigh in 2010.

A former Queensland MP has quit the ALP in disgust over Annastacia Palaszczuk’s hand-picking of surfing legend Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew to stand as a Labor candidate on the Gold Coast at the October 31 state election, saying it broke party rules.

Veteran Beattie and Bligh government MP Christine Smith ­resigned at the weekend, as federal ALP president Wayne Swan ­attended a branch meeting on Saturday in Burleigh Heads in a bid to quell members’ anger over the preselection.

Ms Palaszczuk’s “captain calls” of several Labor candidates for winnable Liberal National Party-held seats at the knife-edge election has fuelled factional fighting and internal party unrest across the state.

The dumping of ­endorsed candidate Tracey Cameron, who was preselected last November for the LNP-held seat of Whitsundays, has also led to threats of mass ­resignations in that branch.

In a letter to the Burleigh Heads’ branch, Ms Smith said she had quit the party after 30 years because of the surprise preselection of Mr Bartholomew — who joined the party only on August 10 — for the LNP-held Burleigh seat over an unnamed candidate who had been endorsed by local members.

Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew during a press conference held by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at Burleigh Heads Mowbray Park SLSC. Picture: Newscorp / Scott Powick

Queensland Labor rules state candidates should be party members for at least six months. Ms Smith said in the letter that while exceptions could be made to the rule, she believed “it didn’t apply in this case!”

“I am disgusted at the way a candidate was thrust upon the Burleigh Branch without even a personal explanation or any discussion,’’ she wrote in the letter.

“A prospective candidate (long-time ALP member) had ­already expressed, to the Branch members, his intention to nominate and was endorsed by Burleigh Branch members.

“While it will be claimed that he withdrew his nomination, and there was not time to canvass members and go through the normal process, I have been a member of the Party long enough to recognise how situations are manipulated.

“Branch members are (or should be) the lifeblood of the party, but they are frequently overlooked and even dismissed as irrelevant (except at election time”.

Ms Smith, who could not be contacted, was the MP for Burleigh Heads between 2001 and 2012, and served as secretary to the Labor caucus. She is widely ­respected by both sides of politics.

ALP state secretary Julie Anne Campbell declined toi comment, and Mr Bartholomew, 65, could not be contacted.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announcing Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew as the next Labor Candidate for seat of Burleigh at the next Queensland State election. Picture: Newscorp / Scott Powick

Michael Hart, who has held Burleigh since defeating Ms Smith in 2012, accused Ms Palaszczuk of treating the Gold Coast seat as a “political plaything”.

“This debacle shows the Palaszczuk Labor government is hopelessly divided, focused on their own jobs instead of getting jobs for the more than 234,000 Queenslanders currently out of work,’’ he said.

The Australian understands that several other Labor candidates are also facing the axe, including in Hervey Bay, where Labor’s frontrunner for preselection, Adrian Tantari, is facing pressure from senior Labor figures who want to select Jason Scanes.