Labor leader Anthony Albanese is preparing to parachute an eastern suburbs-located “celebrity” candidate into the marginal Labor-held seat of Parramatta, angering local branch members and even drawing cries of structural racism.
Andrew Charlton, a former economics adviser to Kevin Rudd and Accenture managing director who lives in Sydney’s ritzy Bellevue Hill, is Mr Albanese’s pick for the prime multicultural marginal seat, multiple sources have confirmed. Mr Charlton has been a regular columnist with the Herald, but his column has been paused.
Andrew Charlton is set to be parachuted in as Labor’s candidate in the marginal seat of Parramatta.Credit:Edwina Pickles
One Labor source confirmed Mr Charlton is willing to move to Parramatta from his $16 million eastern suburbs home, which used to be occupied by media mogul Mia Freedman and neighbours Lachlan Murdoch’s home.
“It’s got some hairs on it,” the person said of Mr Albanese’s plan. “It will put noses out of joint.”
The captain’s pick overlooks local grassroots candidates from diverse backgrounds, including union lawyer Abha Devasia, who believed she had a strong chance for the seat, and lawyer Durga Owen, a Tamil refugee from Sri Lanka who came to live in Parramatta as a child.
The process has so angered branch members that they wrote to Mr Albanese and Labor’s national executive expressing “no confidence” in it.
The Sydney Morning Herald has seen the letter, which criticises the “lack of transparency and unnecessary delay” and calls for a rank-and-file preselection to be conducted immediately.
Mr Charlton’s $16 million Bellevue Hill home, which used to be occupied by media mogul Mia Freedman.
But neither Mr Albanese nor the federal executive responded to the branch members’ correspondence.
“These decisions are made by three or four people in a restaurant,” said James Shaw, the president of the Parramatta Federal Electorate Committee, which represents the branches in the electorate.
“This is how we got [former state Labor politician] Ian Macdonald. We have factional leaders negotiating over who our candidate is rather than grassroots membership.”
Labor was recently criticised for parachuting in an “outsider” from an affluent area when Senator Kristina Keneally was chosen as the candidate for Fowler, in Sydney’s south west.
Keneally was living on exclusive Scotland Island when she was selected. She has since moved to a rental in Liverpool.
Parramatta sits on a margin of 3.5 per cent and has been held by Labor’s Julie Owens for 18 years.
Ms Owens is a member of the “soft left” also known as the “Ferguson left” after former MP Laurie Ferguson.
The soft left are bitter rivals to Mr Albanese’s sub-faction, the “hard left” or socialist left, aligned with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.
“I think Anthony, when he was in his 20s, was of that political ideology,” Mr Shaw said.
“He has changed his ideology – I mean, we had a more progressive agenda under Bill Shorten – but tribally he’s remained within the AMWU group.”
Due to a historical alleged branch-stacking scandal, local pre-selections had been paused in Parramatta for two years, although members say that two years expired in February.
“They can’t use that as an excuse ad infinitum to deny us our democratic rights,” Mr Shaw said.
“They [the federal leadership] think local candidates are no good and theirs are better.
“But it’s never a meritorious process, it’s about putting people up who are their friends and allies.”
One disgruntled local Labor figure said the party had missed an opportunity to introduce more diversity of background into the caucus.
“The blind spot the Labor leadership has around this, we use that term to forgive what I perceive as structural racism,” the local said.
The person said it sent a message to multicultural communities: “You can build our roads, you can teach our children, you can work in our hospitals, but you cannot be decision-makers.”
Another local Labor leader who asked not to be named said the dispute was about “centuries-old hatreds” within Labor.
“Charlton is someone that Labor should be getting into Parliament, but the fit is way off for Parramatta.
“This is not a safe seat, it is an important marginal that has been in the Labor column for 18 years, through the efforts of locals. There is considerable anger about it.”
Alan Mascarenhas, the vice-president of the Parramatta branch, said he had been approached by many constituents to be a consensus candidate.
“Labor has options – we have a range of diverse candidates, who can speak authentically to this multicultural area.”
Mr Charlton did not respond to requests for comment.
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