The battle for Labor Party preselection for the seat of Tarneit remains on knife’s edge, with local resident Jasvinder Sidhu taking out the first round in the local vote.
In a tight contest, Tarneit’s Mr Sidhu won the weekend’s local branch vote, with 20 votes to Altona North resident Sarah Connolly’s 17. The Labor Party’s central branch will vote between the pair on November 15.
In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Sidhu, a university lecturer and founder of not-for-profit group Let’s Feed, said it was an “incredible honour” to secure the local vote.
“However, the final decision on who is endorsed as Labor’s candidate for Tarneit now rests with the public office selection committee,” he wrote.
“It is clear from this election that local members want a representative who lives locally and who has grassroots community connections to represent them in Tarneit. I am confident that the public office selection committee will strongly consider these factors and I will encourage them to support the local vote outcome.”
Fellow Labor Party member and Wyndham councillor Josh Gilligan is similarly confident that Mr Sidhu will win preselection, citing a history of Labor’s central branch supporting the local vote.
“The local rank and file members have given their support, and my expectation is that the central branch will endorse that local vote,” he said.
“Obviously there will be factional forces that will want to complicate that, but the branch has made it clear that they want a local representative.”
However, at least one Labor source believes that Ms Connolly, who is married to Australian Council of Trade Unions assistant secretary Scott Connolly, will win the central vote – and become the endorsed candidate – thanks to union support and the backing of upper house MP and Right factionalist Adem Somyurek.
The safe Labor seat is being vacated by Telmo Languiller, who announced in August he would not contest the November, 2018, election.
