Factional brawl grips Labor over deal for new MP, Andrews and Albanese asked to step in

Danby calls on the Labor Party to allow 1,500 party members in Melbourne’s south a vote in who replaces Dalidakis.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has been called on to intervene in the factional drama. Picture: AAP

EXCLUSIVE

ALP elder Michael Danby has called on the Labor Party to “follow its own rules” and allow 1,500 party members in Melbourne’s south to have a say over who should replace Victorian upper house MP Philip Dalidakis, rather than rubber stamping a factional deal to install a controversial candidate who does not live in the area when the ALP national executive meets on Friday.

The recently retired member for Melbourne Ports’s comments came as key ALP branches in the area launched a petition calling on Anthony Albanese, Daniel Andrews and party administrators to allow them a democratic vote, as national executive moves to parachute Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association candidate Enver Erdogan into the seat.

“Labor should follow its own rules which mandate that the 1,500 local party members in southern metropolitan should vote in a preselection,” Mr Danby told The Australian.

“There is nothing wrong with the factions having their own meetings to suggest candidates, but if there is no urgency Labor branch members should get a vote to pick their candidate.

Mr Danby said his comments were not a judgment on Mr Erdogan, but a criticism based on the principles involved in bypassing a local plebiscite.

Several local branch members accused the party of taking them for granted.

“What this in effect says in my mind is, ‘you guys are good for handing out how-to-vote-cards on election day, but we wouldn’t want you to have a say in choosing candidates,” said one ALP member.

ALP Prahran branch secretary Stephen Underwood said members in Victoria had worked hard fighting back-to-back state and federal elections.

“We deserve better than being overlooked by the state admin committee,” he said.

Mr Erdogan stands to gain the seat through a factional deal guaranteeing the SDA the next available spot in Victoria’s upper house, but the Prahran and Brighton ALP branches are calling for national executive’s decision to be postponed, in favour of a local plebiscite, given Victorian parliament does not sit again until August 13.

Party members in Melbourne’s south have opposed Mr Erdogan’s appointment, citing the north and western suburbs-based lawyer’s lack of connection to the area, and his record on Middle Eastern politics.

Mr Erdogan, a Turkish-speaking member of the Kurdish community, led a motion as a Moreland councillor to condemn “Israel’s massacre in Gaza” in 2009 and was on the council in 2010 when it allowed radical ­Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir to host an anti-Israel conference in the Brunswick Town Hall.

Enver Erdogan

The Maurice Blackburn lawyer this week distanced himself from the council’s decision on Hizb ut-Tahrir, saying he opposed “extremism and fundamentalism in all forms” and had “no involvement” in booking of council facilities, and said he supports Israel’s right to exist as an independent state.

He also said he would move to the southern metropolitan area “promptly” if elected.

He did not respond to a request for further comment on Wednesday.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson, who holds the Melbourne bayside seat of Goldstein, said the decision to install Mr Erdogan was “a slap in the face for the electorate covering Melbourne’s largest Jewish community.

“Daniel Andrews should intervene unless he wants to be tarred with this guy’s anti-Israel brush,” Mr Wilson said.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews, who is on leave, said the issue was a “matter for the party”.

A spokesman for Mr Albanese said the issue was “a matter for the Victorian branch.”

The southern metropolitan ALP members’ petition states that, “One of the most important rights enjoyed by members of the Australian Labor Party is to participate in the selection of Party candidates and parliamentarians.”

It calls for the Victorian ALP administrative committee’s resolution last week to request that the national executive preselect an endorsed SDA candidate on Friday to be overturned.

“As the Legislative Council has risen and is not to sit again until 13 August 2019, sufficient and ample time is available for rank-and-file members of the ALP in the Southern Metropolitan Region to formally indicate a preference for an ALP member to replace Philip Dalidakis,” the petition reads.

“Accordingly, we the undersigned members of the ALP in the Southern Metropolitan Region call on the ALP’s National Secretary and National Executive, Federal ALP Leader Anthony Albanese, Victorian ALP State Secretary Sam Rae and Victorian ALP Leader Daniel Andrews to uphold our democratic rights enshrined in the ALP’s rules, to endorse a candidate by a local plebiscite vote weighted with the Victorian branch’s elected Public Office Selection Committee.

“A candidate endorsed by ALP members through a democratic preselection by ALP would be consistent with the values, rules and direction of our great Party.

“If we are to recover from our federal election defeat and continue our fight against the conservatives for a fairer Australia, we need more democracy in our Labor Party, not less.”