Miners aim for shooter Daniel Repacholi in Hunter

The CFMEU’s mining and energy division is backing Olympic shooter Daniel Repacholi as Labor’s candidate for Hunter.

2018 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Daniel Repacholi. Picture: AFP

The CFMEU’s mining and energy division has urged Anthony Albanese to intervene in the Hunter preselection decision in NSW and anoint Olympic shooter Daniel Repacholi, without a local vote, as Labor’s candidate for the coalmining seat.

Outgoing Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon on Monday backed Mr Repacholi as his successor, after The Australian revealed the former cabinet minister would retire from politics at the next election.

However, some NSW Right figures are concerned the faction will lose influence under a deal to install Mr Repacholi in the seat of Hunter, given he would likely not be aligned to a faction.

Mr Repacholi, 39, is a three-time Olympian and a former coalminer who lives in the town of Cessnock. He may continue to compete competitively even if he represents Hunter in the House of Representatives.

The Australian has been told a deal to install Mr Repacholi as the Hunter candidate has the support of NSW state secretary Bob Nanva and elements of the Left, including the CFMEU.

However, there are Right faction figures pushing for local nurse Emily Suvaal, while members of the NSW Left are pushing for a ballot because they believe the numbers are in their favour in the branches.

Peter Jordan, the president of the CFMEU’s NSW energy and northern mining division, said the Left-faction union was backing Mr Repacholi to replace Mr Fitzgibbon. Mr Jordan said he did not expect Mr Repacholi to join a faction, amid claims by Ms Suvaal’s supporters the Olympian would effectively be a member of the Left if he joined parliament.

“We indicated, I guess when (Mr Fitzgibbon) identified Daniel as a potential candidate, that we leant our support to that,” Mr Jordan told The Australian.

“I would like to make sure that Albo also gives him the tick of approval and gets behind him and we don’t even have to see a preselection ballot for the seat of Hunter.”

Under a redistribution in 2016, the Left faction-dominated seat of Charlton was abolished and Hunter took in a majority of its branches. A factional deal that year protected Mr Fitzgibbon, a long-time convener of the NSW Right, from a rank-and-file contest in the seat until he retired. In return, the Right agreed to support the Left’s Linda Burney in the seat of Barton until she chose to leave politics.

The move to install Mr Repacholi as an unaligned candidate is designed to appease the Left while ensuring the seat has a candidate that is strongly backed by long-term MP Mr Fitzgibbon.

Mr Repacholi, who is also the manager for a mining services firm, said he was “not interested in factional arrangements”.

“I’m focused on the opportunity to represent the electorate and doing good things for my community,” Mr Repacholi said.

“I’m not particularly interested in factional arrangements but I note that both the Right and the Left support the mining industry. That’s a good thing.

“If given the opportunity I’ll make my decisions based on the interests of the electorate not any particular faction.”

The Opposition Leader said Mr Repacholi would be “a very strong candidate” but declined to back him as the replacement for Mr Fitzgibbon. “He’s someone who has represented his nation in both the Olympic and Commonwealth Games,” Mr Albanese told Sky News.

“He’s in the Cessnock Hall of Fame. He’s a local who works in the mining industry. And he’s one of the candidates who will be given due consideration. I’m very confident we will have a strong candidate to replace Joel in Hunter.”

Mr Albanese, who was elected to parliament in the same year as Mr Fitzgibbon, said the two had some differences over the years.

“But we’ve had many more beers than we’ve had differences together,” he said. “And I certainly wish Joel all the best for his future. He has been a champion of his local electorate.”

Mr Albanese could use the ­national executive to endorse Mr Repacholi as the candidate.

Ms Suvaal, an organiser for the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ ­Association, said the preselectio­n should be a “matter for local Labor Party rank-and-file members”.

“Over the coming days, I will be talking to local rank-and-file members to put myself forward as a candidate and to seek their support. As a registered nurse, and mother of two young sons living in Cessnock, I understand the critical issues affecting regional families.”

Confirming his retirement, Mr Fitzgibbon said he believed Labor had “learned from the mistakes of (the) 2019 (election)”.

“I knew that if I worked hard at it, Labor would see some common sense and come back to the people it’s traditionally represented.”