Factions blue over selection reversal

LABOR has invoked affirmative action at the expense of a union man who won preselection for the new southeast Queensland federal seat of Wright.

LABOR has invoked affirmative action rules at the expense of a union man who notionally won preselection for the new southeast Queensland federal seat of Wright, precipitating a factional row over the advancement of women candidates.

The ALP Left, traditionally the champion of affirmative rights, is challenging the endorsement of media consultant Sharon Murakami over CFMEU official Andrew Ramsay. He prevailed 26-24 in the electoral college of union and party delegates worth half the preselection vote, and 38-25 in the subsequent plebiscite of local branch members.

But when the ALP's affirmative action weighting was applied, Ms Murakami slipped across the line, infuriating Mr Ramsay's backers on the Left.

The ironies were not lost on either camp yesterday as the state ALP convened a disputes tribunal to hear Mr Ramsay's appeal against the result.

One insider pointed out that the Left had championed the affirmative action target to deliver 40 per cent of winnable ALP seats to women candidates and should "grin and bear it".

Mr Ramsay's supporters insisted his complaint was not with affirmative action, but a procedural problem with the preselection. Mr Ramsay said yesterday party rules prevented him from commenting.

Boonah-based Ms Murakami, who was backed by the Right's Labor Unity grouping, said affirmative action was party policy. "Officially, it's still going on but I'm going forward as the candidate," she said.

The new division of Wright was carved out of farmland and booming dormitory suburbs southwest of Brisbane and pencilled in as a notional gain for the Queensland-based Liberal National Party, albeit by a margin tight enough to keep Labor in the hunt. In the ultra-marginal Brisbane seat of Dickson, Labor will push hard to beat Liberal frontbencher Peter Dutton, touted as a future leader of his party.

But ALP candidate Fiona McNamara faces difficult questions about her day job as the Brisbane north organiser of the Queensland Teachers' Union, which yesterday vowed to defy a Queensland Industrial Relations Commission directive against it proceeding with a national boycott of school literacy and numeracy testing.

Ms McNamara said concerns about the tests being used to create league tables through the My School website should be aired, even though the initiative was trumpeted by Labor.

"It's not just the teachers' union that is concerned," she said. "It's about making teachers' and parents' voices valued."

In 2007, Ms McNamara took Mr Dutton to the wire in Dickson, gaining a 9.54 per cent swing to Labor. He was returned by only 217 votes.