Premier Chris Minns has defended a series of captain’s call candidates as he faces growing backlash from Labor branch members concerned diverse local aspirants were being locked out of the chance to nominate before the March state election.
Former police officer Pat Gooley was installed as Labor’s candidate for the marginal seat of Winston Hills in Sydney’s northwest, and upper house MP Emily Suvaal was parachuted into the ultra-safe Labor seat of Wallsend. Both candidates were announced before they had been officially endorsed.
Minns conceded he needed to make tough decisions to ensure Labor had a candidate who could win at the March poll, as he faced anger from rank-and-file members who felt they had been denied a say.
“The reality is, political parties and this government, we’re not running a not-for-profit, we’re not running a charity, we’re running a political party that will rise and fall based on whether we win elections or not,” Minns said during a visit to Wallsend in Newcastle on Friday.
When asked about the unrest in Labor branches, Minns said: “I think there’s a bit of an awareness and an acceptance that we can’t have a big Labor Party brawl. We’ve just got to get on with it.”
In a sign of frustration with Labor HQ, three branch members from Winston Hills’ significant South Asian diaspora publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the nomination process.
Hills Shire Councillor Immanuel Selvaraj said in a statement he would nominate for Winston Hills even after Gooley was announced as candidate.
“To our subcontinent community: you have built homes, small businesses, temples, gurdwaras, churches and mosques across Glenwood, Kings Langley, Winston Hills and Northmead,” Selvaraj said.
“You work hard, you raise your families here, and you give back. You deserve a strong voice in Macquarie Street. I want to be that voice.”
Former Winston Hills candidate Sameer Pandey said he wouldn’t nominate, but added preselection processes were strongest when they considered all eligible members.
Pandey was Parramatta’s first lord mayor of Indian descent. In 2023, he reduced the Liberal Party’s hold on the seat to the knife-edge margin of 1.8 per cent.
Another branch member, Kushpinder Kaur, was disappointed she was not given the chance to be considered.
“While I respect the party’s processes and decisions, I also believe that local voices, grassroots participation and the contributions of branch members deserve to be heard and valued,” she said.
“Preselection should be an opportunity for members to have their say and participate in choosing who represents their community.”
Senior Sussex Street sources, who spoke to the Herald on the condition of anonymity, said the party wanted to avoid messy preselection battles in seats such as Winston Hills where members of the right, hard and soft-left factions would all have contested.
They denied Labor overlooked South Asian candidates, pointing to Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, upper house MP Bernard Govind and Liverpool MP Charishma Kaliyanda as MPs with such heritage.
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