Labor preselection hopeful Misha Zelinsky forced to quit

A senior union official seeking preselection for the federal election in a safe Labor seat on the NSW south coast has withdrawn from the race.

Misha Zelinsky.

A senior union official seeking preselection for the federal election in a safe Labor seat on the NSW south coast has withdrawn from the race, succumbing to a backlash from Labor women who claimed a book he wrote was “degrading” to all women.

Misha Zelinsky, the Australian Workers Union assistant national secretary, confirmed on Thursday he had withdrawn from a party preselection for the Illawarra seat of Cunningham, saying it was clear he lacked enough support from local branch members.

The exit of Mr Zelinsky – who drew political fire from Labor women over his book He’s an arsehole anyway: how to deal with being dumped by the arseholes themselves – paves the way for Labor staffer Alison Byrnes to succeed retiring Labor MP Sharon Bird in Cunningham.

Ms Byrnes is a longtime staffer of Ms Bird and former Labor MPs Mark Latham and Stephen Martin. She is now expected to be confirmed as Labor’s candidate without a ballot.

Supporters of Mr Zelinksy had pointed to the 37-year-old’s potential as a quality Labor candidate. He recently returned from the US after a six-month Fulbright scholarship, he has law and economics degrees, has served on ALP policy committees and he was a criminal defence lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service before being employed by the AWU as its economist in 2011.

The book, which he co-wrote with a friend in late 2012, supposedly as a satirical work, first drew criticism in 2015 when Mr Zelinsky attempted to unseat Ms Bird in Cunningham and withdrew from preselection a first time.

Although Mr Zelinsky has issued an apology for the book, his party critics maintained their rage that it presented a “sickening and misogynistic view of women” and he could not gain their support “now or into the future”.

The Australian understands former ALP head office executive Amanda Fazio wrote a detailed submission to party elders on a vetting panel which argued Mr Zelinsky’s candidacy sent an unacceptable message to young people and he should be rejected.