The top-performing candidate in a Labor preselection battle was dumped in a factional bid to save a sitting MLA and a preferred female candidate while meeting the party's affirmative action quotas.
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Taimus Werner-Gibbings won a preselection vote for Brindabella, taking 44 votes when a ballot was held earlier this month.
But he was dropped from the party's ticket to make way for Louise Crossman, a former party president, who came last in the original preselection ballot.
Another female candidate had polled higher than Ms Crossman in the original vote, but did not receive factional backing at a bitter branch council meeting on Thursday, excluding her from the revised ticket.
Brendan Forde, a right-aligned senior adviser to Bean MP David Smith and former candidate, was backed to stay on the ticket, despite polling behind Mr Werner-Gibbings in the original ballot.
Mr Werner-Gibbings had also polled ahead of Planning Minister Mick Gentleman, the party's incumbent member for Brindabella, who received 32 votes.
The party's affirmative action requirements mean the party must run at least two female candidates in each of the five five-member ACT electorates.
But the rules also require the party to run 13 female candidates out of the total 25 fielded at each territory election, meaning some electorates must have a higher number of women running.
Mr Werner-Gibbings, who narrowly lost to the Greens' Johnathan Davis at the 2020 election, does not belong to a party faction.
Mr Gentleman, Ms Crossman, Mr Forde, Caitlin Tough and Noor El-Asadi are understood to be the party's candidates for Brindabella. Ms Tough and Ms El-Asadi had been preselected as part of the earlier vote.
Joy Burch, who has held a Brindabella seat for Labor since 2008 and has served as Assembly speaker since 2016, will retire at the October 2024 election.
Another man who had been preselected in Kurrajong - which covers inner north and south Canberra - chose to stand aside to make way for a female candidate to ensure the party met its affirmative action rules.
ACT Labor secretary Ash van Dijk said: "Labor has a proud record of electing women to Parliament. This is made possible by our commitment to affirmative action, ensuring our candidates reflect the communities they seek to represent."
When preselectors fail to meet the quotas, the party's branch council can intervene to ensure the requirements are met. The party's rules give the branch council the power to take "any other action to ensure that affirmative action is met".
The party's left faction-controlled administration committee will meet to approve the new preselections, which are expected to be contested, before Labor's 2024 election candidates are formally announced.
Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
