ACTU boss Ged Kearney to take Batman fight to Greens

ACTU president Ged Kearney is expected to announce today she will contest the federal seat of Batman.

ACTU President Ged Kearney. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

Labor will bank on ACTU president Ged Kearney to stave off a Greens challenge in inner Melbourne as it battles to preserve its eight-decade hold on the federal seat of Batman.

Ms Kearney did not respond to requests for comment yesterday after sitting member David Feeney resigned saying he was unable to prove he had renounced a claim to British dual citizenship and that he would not contest a by-election.

It is understood ALP leader Bill Shorten will nominate Ms Kearney for preselection for the seat in a “captain’s pick”, which will be circulated to the party’s national executive ahead of the first federal sitting week of the year.

Ms Kearney, who has already been preselected for the marginal seat of Brunswick for the November Victorian election, has been described by sources as a candidate with a profile and labour movement credentials to retain the seat.

One party insider described a Batman by-election with Ms Kearney as the candidate a case of “not dying wondering”.

Last year the Greens defeated Labor in the once safe seat of Northcote part of which is in the federal seat of Batman.

“The Northcote result floored everyone and that was considered to be the real test of whether we could hold an inner city seat, but at the same time, there’s also something to be said about having someone who is well recognised outside of the party,” a source told The Australian.

Ms Kearney, who lives in Melbourne, is one of the labour movement’s more recognisable faces, rising to prominence leading the nurses’ federation — the country’s biggest union — before being elected ACTU president in 2009.

She has long been open about her political aspirations.

In 2013, she considered running against Mr Feeney in Batman as sitting member Martin Ferguson announced his retirement, but bowed out of the race after then prime minister Julia Gillard backed Mr Feeney.

She emerged as the candidate for the marginal state seat of Brunswick in September last year, when sitting MP Jane Garrett flagged that she would attempt to move to the Victorian upper house, citing health and family reasons for the move.

At the time, Ms Garrett endorsed Ms Kearney as “a person of principle and conviction who has spent her life fighting for fairness and justice. She is a national leader, a hero of the great Australian union movement and a Brunswick local for many years,” she said.

Mr Feeney said the seat needed a candidate who could “give the months and the years ahead, 150 per cent of their effort”.

If endorsed, she will square off against Greens candidate Alex Bhathal, who will campaign on federal issues far removed from the inner Melbourne electorate, including the Adani coal mine, climate change and asylum-seekers.

The Liberal Party is still undecided if it will field a candidate, with a state administrative committee meeting to make a decision.

Victorian Liberal president ­Michael Kroger indicated the party could support a candidate if they showed they had “pro-Israel, pro-America” credentials, but would not make a definitive call.

A Liberal candidate would be pivotal to the outcome, with Liberal preferences to Labor likely to pull Labor over the line if it doesn’t win the primary vote.