Friendly fire: rare Queensland Labor preselection contest for sitting MP
A newly minted member of Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ frontbench will be challenged for preselection next month in a formal battle not seen for decades in faction-dominated Labor.
A newly minted member of Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ frontbench will be challenged for preselection next month in a formal battle not seen for decades in faction-dominated state Labor.
Public servant and former electorate officer Susan Lynch has nominated to challenge Jimmy Sullivan, a first-term MP and former chief of staff for Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath, in the inner-north Brisbane electorate of Stafford.
Right-faction MP Mr Sullivan, a qualified lawyer, was last month promoted from the backbench to become Assistant Minister for Justice and Veterans Affairs in the cabinet reshuffle after Annastacia Palaszczuk’s shock resignation as Premier.
He is the only sitting Labor MP being challenged for preselection ahead of the October state election.
Labor historian Malcolm McMillan, who worked for four Queensland Labor opposition leaders and has recently published a two-volume history of Australian public affairs from 1957 to 2020 called The Insider, told The Australian that the last Queensland Labor MP to lose a preselection contest was Eric Shaw ahead of the 1989 election.
Manly MP Mr Shaw was beaten by Jim Elder, who went on to become Peter Beattie’s deputy premier but was forced to quit cabinet in 2000 before admitting electoral fraud at the Shepherdson Inquiry.
After Mr Shaw lost his Labor endorsement in September 1988, he saw out the rest of the term as an Independent MP.
Ahead of the 1992 state election, sitting MP Terry Sullivan – Jimmy Sullivan’s father – was challenged for preselection for the newly created electorate of Chermside, and won. That’s believed to be the most recent time a sitting Queensland Labor MP has faced a preselection battle.
The Stafford preselection will be held next month.
Ms Lynch was electorate officer for former Stafford MP Anthony Lynham for more than five years before he retired at the 2020 state poll to return to his work as a maxillofacial surgeon.
She told The Australian that when Dr Lynham retired “many assumed I was the natural choice as the Stafford candidate”, after being the electorate officer and also running for Labor in the Brisbane City Council elections in March 2020.
“But in 2020, my nomination for Stafford did not progress, and the process halted, meaning that the branch members were essentially deprived of their right to vote for their candidate,” Ms Lynch said.
“I have the work ethic, commitment, and the focus to drive accountability and outcomes for the electorate. I can retain the ALP-held seat of Stafford and prove that integrity matters.” Mr Sullivan said he believed he had “strong local branch support” and the “full support of the Premier, Deputy Premier, and my predecessor Dr Lynham in recontesting the seat”.
“I have worked alongside northside grassroots branch members for decades and I will be asking them again for the honour of representing the great Labor Party in the electorate of Stafford, to continue the significant work this government has delivered for this community,” Mr Sullivan said.
“As people know, I went to primary school in the electorate, I went to high school in the electorate, my wife and I are raising our kids in the electorate.”
“I have worked closely with local community organisations, schools, health staff, police, housing staff and sporting clubs, to name a few – and worked hard on behalf of all my constituents.”
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