Unions face off over Labor by-election candidate Lance McCallum

Union bosses within Queensland Labor’s dominant Left faction have clashed over the legitimacy of a preselection ballot.

Lance McCallum.

Union bosses within Queensland Labor’s dominant Left faction have clashed over the legitimacy of an internal ballot for the preselection of a candi­date for the ultra-safe seat of Bundamba.

Former Electrical Trades Union official Lance McCallum, appointed to a $200,000-a-year Palaszczuk government job last year, will be announced today as Labor’s candidate for the March 28 by-election. It was sparked by the sudden resignation last week of former police minister Jo-Ann Miller, Queensland’s longest-serving Labor MP.

Mr McCallum was Labor’s only nominee to stand as a candidate for Bundamba after a vote of the Left faction branch members, executives and unions.

The endorsement of Mr McCallum, who lives outside the seat and moved back to Queensland only last year, has sparked anger in the party.

CFMEU state secretary Mich­ael Ravbar, who said this week that Mr McCallam’s endorsement showed “disdain and disrespect” to local voters, has also questioned the legitimacy of the ballot.

A Construction Forestry Maritime Mining and Energy Union spokesman confirmed that Mr Ravbar had written to Left faction convener Gary Bullock, state secretary of the United Voice union, requesting a detailed breakdown of the ballot.

Mr Bullock, who did not returns calls from The Australian, is understood to have rejected the request.

Earlier this week, there had been claims that veteran branch members had been excluded from the vote. The seat is held on a margin of 21.5 per cent.

Mr McCallum secured the candidacy with the support of ETU officials and United Voice over rival Nick Thompson, backed by the CFMEU.

Mr McCallum was appointed last year as inaugural executive director of the government’s Just Transition Group, a body the ETU demanded be created to help energy workers who might be left without a job amid the renewabl­es evolution.

Mr Ravbar told The Australian this week that “parachuting” a candidate from outside the electorate was “ludicrous”.