Two court bids aiming to stop Victorian Labor preselections

A factional war has engulfed the Victorian Labor Party weeks out from the federal election, as allies of late Senator Kimberley Kitching and embattled Senator Kim Carr seek urgent legal intervention to derail the federal party’s control over preselections.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese is facing two separate legal challenges from factional forces after the High Court agreed on Friday to hear an expedited special leave application by unions for an appeal to challenge federal Labor’s takeover of the Victorian party.

Separately on Friday, the United Firefighters Union was finalising paperwork for an urgent application to the state’s Supreme Court to stop the national executive from picking Victorian senate candidates on Tuesday.

The High Court will hear a special application to challenge the federal takeover of Victorian Labor.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The union led by secretary Peter Marshall – one of Senator Carr’s strongest supporters – is expected to seek a hearing in the state’s Supreme Court over the weekend to halt the preselection process. The veteran senator is poised to lose his position on the ticket in favour of union boss Linda White, who is backed by the Left faction.

The legal bid will be underpinned by the union’s belief that the national executive, which has decided Victorian candidates since the federal takeover of the state branch, does not have the power to make decisions because its membership was last elected three years ago. The union contends this is contrary to the party’s constitution and a new election should have been held to elect the executive’s members.

The legal bid is designed to ramp up pressure on Mr Albanese and Victorian powerbrokers to end a factional war that has engulfed the party for years, and which has escalated since the sudden death of Senator Kitching earlier this month. Her senate position was also not guaranteed.

The Firefighters Union is also party to the High Court challenge – spearheaded by the Health Workers Union and the Plumbers Union, which were closely aligned to Senator Kitching – that cleared its first legal hurdle on Friday.

At a directions hearing in the High Court on Friday, Justice Stephen Gageler made an order that the special leave application be expedited and heard by Thursday next week, with the parties directed to file their submissions by early next week.

Addressing the court by video link, Justice Gageler said that if special leave were to be refused “that of course would be the end of the matter”. If the special leave is granted, then the High Court will hear the appeal.

The lengthy court battle was triggered after the federal ALP executive took over the Victorian branch after The Age revealed wide-spread branch stacking, enabling it to choose candidates to run for election. A coalition of up to 10 unions unsuccessfully challenged the move in Victorian Supreme Court, which ruled in October it had been lawful. A number of unions subsequently abandoned the cause, as the unions close to senators Kitching and Carr appealed the matter to the state’s Court of Appeal, which was dismissed last month.

Speaking before the court hearing on Friday, Mr Albanese said people would form their own judgements about the merits of the unions’ pursuit of the matter.

“This is an appeal of an appeal. There are some people who have made decisions some time ago, they went to court. They lost. They then sought to arrange some costs. They lost. They then appealed that decision. They lost. Now, they are appealing before the High Court,” he said.

“Up to this point in time, the courts have made a judgement on the merits of the cases and have been very clear in their decisions.”

Federal Labor sources believe the case is highly destructive and fear a consequence of legal action, if it is successful, is the party would not be able to contest the federal election in Victoria. Since May last year, the party’s national executive has preselected candidates for the 22 federal seats.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph last week, HWU boss Diana Asmar said Senator Kitching was her best friend and alleged she had been subject to “horrendous workplace bullying” by Labor’s leadership group before her death from a suspected heart attack. Mr Albanese and senior frontbenchers have rejected calls for an inquiry into the matter, saying no formal complaint about bullying was made by Senator Kitching.