Bill Shorten forbids preselection challenges ahead of election

Bill Shorten has publicly declared he will not allow sitting Labor MPs to be challenged for preselection ahead of the next election.

Shorten said he will back a proposal to refer preselections to the ­national executive.

Bill Shorten has publicly declared he will not allow sitting Labor MPs to be challenged for preselection ahead of the next election, denying grassroots Labor members a say in who represents them.

As The Australian revealed today, the Labor leader is set to back a push for a national takeover of the preselection process in his home state, in a move that risks igniting a civil war within the Right faction of the Victorian Labor Party.

Mr Shorten has told senior party figures he will back a proposal endorsed by powerbrokers Kim Carr and ­Stephen Conroy to refer preselections to the ­national executive.

The move, strongly opposed by key Victorian Right figure Adem Somyurek, would protect sitting members from a challenge and influence the pre­selections in open seats such as Jagajaga and Macnamara (currently Melbourne Ports).

It would also make it easier for Mr Shorten to shift to the new electorate of Fraser and select a favourable candidate to replace him in Maribyrnong.

Mr Shorten was coy about the move as he campaigned in the Tasmanian seat of Braddon this morning, saying he would leave the Victorian preselections to the Victorian Labor Party.

“One thing I will make clear though, and I make clear both internally and externally: I back my sitting members,” Mr Shorten said.

“If I’ve got sitting members who want to keep contributing, I want them on the front line.

“What I will offer is a period of stability for my MPs. I won’t let my MPs be ignored, and I’ll make sure I protect my sitting MPs.”

Victorian Labor frontbencher Brendan O’Connor, who is a member of the Socialist Left faction of the party, said it would be ideal to have preselections in each electorate, as Labor usually does.

“But the national executive can obviously make a decision — particularly in relation to an election that may be called early, or the potential of some difficulties in preselections — to make a decision to be involved in that process,” Mr O’Connor told Sky News.

“We have that capacity, and it has been used in the past. That’s really for the national executive and the party to determine, not the parliamentary party, but let’s see what happens there.

“Our focus, I have to tell you right now, as you can understand, is in Braddon and Longman and of course in Western Australia, and for that matter to see how things go in Mayo.”

Queensland frontbencher Jim Chalmers said the resignation of Labor veterans Jenny Macklin and Michael Danby offered Labor an opportunity to “really refresh the team” in Victoria.

“I wish there wasn’t a vacancy in Jagajaga. I wish Jenny Macklin would go around for another 22 or 23 years, but we do have some vacancies,” he told Sky News.

“We do have some opportunities to refresh the team in Victoria. I don’t involve myself in the process of the preselections down there.

“I hope that we get really great candidates and I’m sure that we will no matter what process is adopted.

“We are up against it a bit time-wise now, I think that’s worth noting. We could have an election really from August onwards. We’ve got to balance all of the considerations, get terrific candidates in the field.

“They’ve got big shoes to fill when it comes to Jenny Macklin in particular, but I’m sure that we’ll settle the process, we’ll get great candidates and they’ll make the Labor case.”

Dr Chalmers said grassroots members had been able to have their say on who represents them in his home state of Queensland.

“We’ve just elected a terrific National President in Wayne Swan. We have all kinds of opportunities to have a say,” he said.

“From time to time that isn’t possible, if we’re up against it time-wise, but I don’t involve myself in that.

“I’m sure they’ll come up with a process that will lead to terrific candidates who’ll make the case for Labor.”