Halt ‘rushed charade’ to pick Queensland Labor chief, says CFMEU

Queensland Labor powerbroker and union heavyweight Michael Ravbar has called for this week’s vote to elect the next ALP state secretary to be delayed.

CFMEU construction division secretary Michael Ravbar. Picture: Attila Csaszar

Queensland Labor powerbroker and union heavyweight Michael Ravbar has called for this week’s vote to elect the next ALP state secretary to be delayed until a review of the party’s federal election performance is finished.

Mr Ravbar, head of Queensland’s CFMEU, said a review of Labor’s dismal election result in the resource state was needed first to ensure the party was a “competitive and credible force”.

Labor posted its worst federal election result in Queensland since 1996, with a net loss of one seat on May 21. Labor now holds just five of Queensland’s 30 federal seats.

The party posted a 1.02 per cent improvement on its 2019 primary vote, which now sits at just 27.7 per cent, well behind the Liberal National Party on 39.9 per cent.

The Greens secured the largest swing of any party at 2.3 per cent and now boast a 12.6 per cent primary vote in Queensland.

Surging Greens support in Brisbane puts Labor seats of McConnel and Bulimba – both held by ministers – in jeopardy at the 2024 state election.

Former Together Union official Kate Flanders, who headed Labor’s unsuccessful target-seat campaign in Queensland, is the frontrunner to become ALP state secretary with a Left faction vote to be finalised on Friday.

The role is open only to a member of Labor’s dominant Left faction because it holds the ­majority of delegates at the ALP conference.

A formal vote to elect the state secretary will occur at the Labor state conference in November.

Mr Ravbar said the ballot to fill outgoing state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell’s role was “hasty and shortsighted”.

“It makes zero sense to have the appointment process for the most important party position in the state rushed through before the final results of the May 21 poll are even known,” he said.

“This unedifying scramble means that very talented and experienced potential candidates, such as Terri Butler or Ali France for example, are effectively precluded from the candidate mix.”

Ms Butler, a federal Labor frontbencher, lost her south Brisbane seat of Griffith to the Greens’ Max Chandler-Mather at the election, coming third on first-preference votes behind the LNP.

Labor’s hopes of capturing the seat of Brisbane from Coalition MP Trevor Evans were also thwarted by the Greens, who claimed victory this week after a tight count.

Mr Ravbar said if renewal of Queensland Labor was rushed it would “end badly”.

“The bottom line is the Labor vote, and seat numbers, declined even further at the election, and the party should be casting the net as widely as possible when replacing the state secretary, at the same time as conducting a root and branch review of the campaign,” he said.

“Instead we have this rushed charade which serves little purpose other than to mask factional jockeying behind the scenes.

“If this is the best we can do then the Labor Party in Queensland deserves what it gets.”

The Queensland branch of the ALP did not wish to ­comment.