Wheeling and dealing could end badly for Shorten

If there is any net upside to Bill Shorten injecting himself into the factional war rocking the Victorian ALP, it is not readily apparent.

Indeed, Shorten’s puzzling decision to meet with factional players a day before the Bennelong by-election has left many supporters bemused and internal opponents thrilled at being handed an opportunity to destabilise his leadership.

Let’s look at who stands to benefit from the latest wheeling and dealing. There’s Adem Somyurek, an aspiring factional kingmaker forced to resign from Daniel Andrews’ cabinet over bullying allegations by his former chief of staff. He has teamed up with a group of left-wing unions, including the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

A chief beneficiary of the deal pushed by Somyurek and the Industrial Left will be Jane Garrett, the former Victorian Cabinet minister who resigned after a dispute with Andrews.

Garrett recently lost a preselection for a state Upper House seat but now wants to be parachuted into a newly created federal seat in Melbourne.

In other words, a CFMEU-sponsored former minister who went to war with a Labor premier and couldn’t generate enough support to win a state seat now wants the alternative prime minister to override internal opposition and back her entry into a federal safe seat.

And Shorten, according to Labor Party figures in Victoria, is considering it.

Perhaps Shorten did not expect news of the Friday meeting to leak. But it has, leaving him exposed.

The Coalition have leapt on the revelations to push the predictable but potentially potent claim that he is doing secret deals to benefit the CFMEU and its allies.

But ALP figures also question why he would personally align himself with the breakaway factional group and give them hope they can blow up a factional stability pact that he originally supported.

“It’s an act of lunacy and all it’s done is send his enemies into a frenzy,’’ one insider said last night.

Shorten has involved himself in a high-risk factional powerplay. It could well end badly for him.