Shorten move over preselections risks civil war in Victorian ALP

Bill Shorten is set to back a push for a national takeover of the preselection process in his home state.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten. Picture: Grant Wells

Bill Shorten 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.

The Opposition Leader 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. 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.

Under the proposed national intervention, the federal executive would tick off the candidate chosen by the factions for seats without a sitting member rather than put it to a branch vote that could be bitterly contested.

A source close to Mr Shorten said: “There’s been no shortage of MPs banging on Bill’s door looking for national executive intervention. They all get it — they don’t want to be fighting for preselection, they should be fighting to knock off the Tories.”

The decision to push the preselections to the national executive is expected to be approved by Labor’s state administrative committee this week if Mr Shorten formally backs it.

The push is not seen as part of an attempt to shore up Mr Shorten’s leadership but a move to head off an ugly pre-election preselection brawl.

Socialist Left sources said part of the angst was over the rise of Mr Somyurek, who supports fellow former state minister Jane Garrett, who is part of the so-called Industrial Left.

There are predictions the Victorian Right will implode if the preselections are decided by the ALP’s national executive. This is because Mr Somyurek and Ms Garrett are gaining greater influence in the party and would be deeply unhappy with any decision to take away the democratic option of preselecting candidates. A Victorian Right source said Mr Shorten’s decision to intervene could become “very ugly’’ because the outcome was difficult to determine. “Bill doesn’t know for sure how this will end. This is not a good scenario for him,’’ the source said.

Other figures played down the significance of the move, ­saying Mr Shorten was showing “leadership” in attempting to avoid bruising preselection ­battles.

“It is about focusing the Labor Party on winning the next election,” a federal Labor MP said. The MP denied the move would split the Right, declaring the faction would come in behind Mr Shorten’s decision and back him.

The push to refer preselections to the national executive also came because of concerns the Right faction, Centre Unity, would attempt to knock off sitting MPs, with Julian Hill and Joanne Ryan believed to be vulnerable.

Mr Somyurek tried to ward off the national intervention by moving a motion last week that Centre Unity would support all sitting MPs in the current federal preselection process, but his factional opponents are understood to doubt his intention to stick to the passed motion.

One Victorian Right MP said: “Vladimir Putin said he was not going to invade the Ukraine.”

Mr Shorten’s move also puts further doubt over the future of a stalled factional realignment that was being led by Mr Somyurek and had the support of Mr Shorten earlier this year. The agreement proposed to bring together the party’s Right with dominant Left-aligned industrial unions including the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Finance Sector Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union.