Labor pains continue over preselection intervention 'so a white man can be returned to the ticket'

Rumblings over the Labor preselection row in the Brindabella electorate are continuing, with a party member saying the cause of diversity had been damaged and the authority of the ACT Branch Council undermined.

In an email to Region, the party member from Wanniassa attacked the role played by federal MPs David Smith, Andrew Leigh and Alicia Payne, and Chief Minister Andrew Barr in the restoration of Taimus Werner-Gibbings to the Labor ticket for October’s election.

Non-aligned Mr Werner-Gibbings, a 2020 Labor candidate pipped by the Greens’ Johnathan Davis, topped last November’s preselection vote, outpolling sitting MLA and Minister Mick Gentleman 44 to 32.

But the Branch Council pushed him off the ticket under affirmative action rules in favour of left-aligned former ACT party president and ministerial staffer Louise Crossman, who came last in the ballot.

This alarmed party members who believed the decision was unfair to Mr Werner-Gibbings.

It is not known if Mr Werner-Gibbings appealed or lobbied party figures. Still, the federal MPs wrote to the national executive expressing their concern and urging it to overrule the branch council decision.

Mr Werner-Gibbings was a staffer for Dr Leigh from 2016 to 2017.

Under a deal brokered by Mr Barr, preselected Noor El-Asadi moved from Brindabella to the neighbouring Murrumbidgee electorate to make way for Mr Werner-Gibbings’ return. It is believed Kamaljeet Singh dropped off the Murrumbidgee ticket to allow Ms Al-Asadi to take a spot.

The party member said the outcome was a blow to grassroots democracy.

“I am a proud member of the ACT Labor Party. Democracy and democratic principles underpin our society and our party. Democracy at both our grassroots level and in our elected bodies have been absolutely devastated by this decision by the National Executive, reportedly at the urging of the Chief Minister and our Federal Representatives,” the party member said.

The party member said the intervention had tarnished Labor, leaving it in a worse state to approach the election.

“If this has truly come from the Chief Minister, and David Smith, Andrew Leigh and Alicia Payne, each one of them should be ashamed of this outcome and their role in it,” they said.

“I know I would be. And I know others share similar thoughts to me.”

The party member supported affirmative action rules and principles and understood why Ms Crossman was preferred.

“I had thought the matter was settled then, even with there being those who were left disgruntled by it,” the party member said.

“It was a decision made by our Branch Council, who are elected representatives of our unions and our grassroots … Everyone should have gotten on to what was important, which is the actual election.”

The party member said not only had Brindabella suffered interference but Murrumbidgee as well, “seemingly at the expense of two diverse candidates”.

“Noor El-Assadi (sic) is made to campaign in an electorate that she had not originally sought preselection in, and Kammy Singh has of no fault of his own been entirely removed from the preselected ticket, after having been under the impression for months he would be a candidate and preparing to sacrifice most of this year to that campaign.

“And all so a white man can be returned to the ticket.”

Under Labor’s affirmative action rules, the party must run at least two female candidates in each of the five-member ACT electorates and 13 female candidates out of the total 25-member candidate list.

When quotas are not reached, the branch council can reopen nominations, move candidates between electorates, or “take any other action to ensure that Affirmative Action is met, and ensure the overall diversity of the ticket”.

ACT Labor has now finalised its preselections across the five electorates and will announce their October election candidates in the coming weeks.