Faction deal has Wayne Swan’s man Anthony Chisholm in danger

LONGTIME Queensland Labor state secretary Anthony Chisholm is likely to be the first casualty of a deal for control of the party.

LONG-TIME Queensland Labor state secretary and Wayne Swan protege Anthony Chisholm is likely to be the first casualty of a deal between the Left and Kevin Rudd’s former old-guard faction for control of the party.

A week before the party’s state conference, the Left is ­already exerting its new-found power over the Right dominated by the Australian Workers Union, having won an outright majority of voting delegates for the first time in the modern political era last month.

The deal involves a shake-up of party officials, new rules on candidate preselection and ratifying reforms giving branch members, unions and caucus equal votes to elect the state leader after next year’s state poll.

The leadership will not go to a vote if state Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk scores an unlikely win over the Newman government.

Labor holds nine of the 89 seats in parliament, but narrowly led the Liberal National Party in last month’s Newspoll on a two-party-preferred basis.

The Left is also planning an urgency motion at the conference condemning Israel’s retaliatory strikes on Gaza and proposes policies allowing ­euthanasia and banning the oil-shale and shale-gas industries.

But it is the move to oust Mr Chisholm, who has been state secretary since 2008 under the patronage of Mr Swan and former AWU boss Bill Ludwig, which will fuel factional tensions.

Federal parliamentary leader Bill Shorten surprised insiders yesterday by withdrawing from the conference, with his deputy Tanya Plibersek attending in his place.

Mr Chisholm, who was elected unopposed to a four-year term at last year’s conference, yesterday said he was aware of the moves to sack him.

“It is disappointing that some people in the party are more interested in cutting deals than fighting Campbell Newman,’’ he said.

It is believed he will be asked to stay for the state election campaign before being replaced by Labor official Evan Moorhead or lawyer Murray Watt — both former state MPs who lost their seats at the 2012 election.

Mr Chisholm would have to be paid out on his contract but is tipped to contest Senate preselections ahead of the next federal election — possibly for Queensland senator Joseph Ludwig’s seat — or to run for Mr Swan’s Brisbane seat of Lilley, should he retire this term.

The power shift follows the implosion this year of the old-guard faction of Mr Rudd and Peter Beattie, its remnants forming a pact with the Left to take control of almost 60 per cent of conference delegates. The long alliance of the old guard and the AWU-dominated Labor Forum faction controlled policy direction and the election of senior party positions.