Political oblivion for Adem Somyurek allies

Labor’s National Executive has signed off on a plan which will end the state political careers of seven sitting MPs.

Frank McGuire and Melbourne councillor Elizabeth Doidge. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Labor’s National Executive has signed off on a plan that will end the state political careers of seven sitting MPs, including three former ministers, cementing a factional realignment sparked by an anti-corruption inquiry that has focused on branch-stacking allegations involving former powerbroker Adem Somyurek.

Somyurek allies including former minister for disability, ageing, carers and child protection Luke Donnellan, former assistant treasurer and minister for veterans and multicultural affairs Robin Scott, and former consumer affairs and gaming minister Marlene Kairouz have all been disendorsed.

Unaligned MP Frank McGuire has become a casualty of the factional carve-up, which has cemented power in the hands of Premier Daniel Andrews’ Socialist Left faction and Right factions associated with Stephen Conroy, Richard Marles and the Transport Workers Union, and with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association.

In the upper house, Australian Workers Union-aligned MP Cesar Melhem and former Somyurek ally and Legislative Council president Nazih Elasmar have found themselves bumped to unwinnable positions, while fellow Somyurek ally Kaushaliya Vag­hela has been dumped from Labor’s ticket altogether.

In the process, which sees the National Executive rather than ALP members determine who gets preselected, Mr McGuire has been replaced by SDA-aligned candidate Kathleen Matthews-Ward, while Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Luba Grigorovitch has been preselected for Ms Kairouz’s seat.

Ben Davis, secretary of the disenfranchised AWU, wrote to ALP state secretary Chris Ford to demand copies of the preselection forms and ask that ballots in contested seats be delayed pending a formal party investigation. “I have been contacted by a number of party members who are concerned about the present round of preselections,” Mr Davis wrote.

“In particular, the allegation is being made that nomination forms were filled out before the nominating candidate was filled out. This is potentially fraudulent and also potentially creating a false document pursuant to the Crimes Act.”

Mr McGuire greeted National Executive members on their way into Monday’s meetings at the ALP’s Docklands headquarters, urging them to reconsider dumping him from his safe northern suburbs seat of Broadmeadows.

“Many have pointed out that the vote of the ALP National Executive … is not about me, it’s an exercise of power and control by factional powerbrokers,” the former journalist and brother of media personality Eddie McGuire tweeted.

“It’s incredibly disappointing that it’s not about the people of Broadmeadows either. They preselected me and elected me to represent them. The ALP National Executive must not corrupt the democratic process in this way.”

On Monday morning, Mr Scott observed: “Just received my third Covid shot. Hoping it is the last shot I receive today.”

Ahead of the meeting, senior Andrews government minister Martin Pakula said: “Today is going to be a very difficult day for a number of my colleagues and I’m not going to add to their difficulty by publicly speculating about what may happen.”

It is not clear whether any deposed MPs will resign and spark by-elections, although the possibility was downplayed by one Labor source: “These people have to think about what their next job is going to be. Do they ­really want to piss off one of the most powerful governments ever?”