A BITTER preselection battle for former attorney-general Nicola Roxon’s western suburbs seat is brewing, with candidates enjoying support from different Labor figures.
Among the candidates are Tim Watts, a former staffer of Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and now manager of Telstra’s corporate affairs; acting general manager of the embattled Health Services Union Victorian No. 1 branch Kimberley Kitching; and Ms Roxon’s former staffer Katie Hall.
Mr Watts is understood to be backed by Senator Conroy while Ms Hall is being supported by Ms Roxon.
Ms Roxon said it was healthy for Labor figures to be backing candidates for preselection. ”I am supporting Katie Hall because she is a strong and capable woman. She’s a good campaigner and she’s local, and all of those things are very important for this region,” Ms Roxon said.
The seat is considered ”Conroy’s patch” within the right-wing Labor Unity faction and, under a stability agreement, the Left will support Unity’s candidate.
Labor policy requires 40 per cent of winnable seats to be filled by women candidates – Gellibrand has a safety margin of 24.1 per cent. ”It’s so encouraging there are at least three women running,” Ms Kitching said. ”This is a membership organisation, locals should be able to decide who represents them.” Ms Kitching, from Labor’s Right, is a former Melbourne city councillor.
The issue is threatening a long-standing arrangement gluing together key factions of the Victorian Right. It is understood Ms Kitching nominated against the wishes of Senator Conroy.
According to a key Labor source, the controversial HSU has been “activated” to marshal a key block of Turkish votes for Ms Kitching. The involvement of the HSU is seen as a direct challenge to Senator Conroy’s authority.
The nominations closed as former premier John Cain backed calls for party reform, saying it was time to end branch stacking and disproportionate union power.
Mr Cain said there were two issues that should be addressed to boost grassroots participation.
The first, he said, was to end branch stacking and the current preselection processes that were being usurped from members.
”Get rid of branch stacking and give the membership a real say. We don’t have preselection processes that have integrity for members,” he said. ”The corollary to that is to make the party a policy workshop.”
With Goya Dmytryshchak
