Bill Shorten has sparked a new Labor factional brawl in his home state of Victoria after backing controversial lawyer and close friend Kimberley Kitching to replace Stephen Conroy in his party's plum top Senate spot.
Ms Kitching secured the party's backing for the seat on Thursday night with the active support of Shorten's union base, and others, after a frenzy of factional bargaining and lobbying through the day.
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Labor's Stephen Conroy has resigned in bizarre and unexpected fashion, leaving even his deputy leader lost for words. Courtesy ABC News 24.
One major union, the National Union of Workers, boycotted the selection committee vote in protest at the lack of democracy in the preselection of Labor senators.
Ms Kitching, from the Victorian Right faction and the wife of former political blogger Andrew Landeryou, is a contentious choice, with senior party figures warning of the dangers of her preselection to the party and to Shorten.
"It's crazy," said one federal Labor frontbencher of the Shorten push for Ms Kitching, a former Melbourne city councillor. Another senior figure described the choice as a political "suicide note" for the Labor leader.
Mr Shorten's inner circle, including the Victorian branches of the Australian Workers Union and the plumbers union, had been careful to minimise publicity around Ms Kitching's likely nomination.
But by Thursday morning, phones were running hot among Labor factional players about Ms Kitching's late run. She was one of eight candidates, all women, who nominated for the coveted senate position at midday on Thursday.
The other main contender was little known corporate lawyer and Geelong football club board member, Diana Taylor.
Mr Shorten has denied backing a particular candidate, but had publicly demanded that Mr Conroy's replacement be a woman.
"He just wants a fair contest. He has a high opinion of a number of candidates. He's made it clear he wants a woman," a senior Shorten ally said.
But sources from across the party were in no doubt about where Mr Shorten's support lay.
The preselection process has highlighted and exacerbated tensions within the Victorian Right, which was guaranteed this particular Senate spot under a stability deal with the party's once-rival left group.
That disunity appears set to worsen with the departure of feared factional strongman, Conroy.
Some insiders from the party's Right faction have warned that the Shorten group's insistence on Ms Kitching - deeply unpopular in many parts of the party - is threatening to destroy the stability deal.
Ms Kitching unsuccessfully stood for preselection to lower house seats ahead of the 2013 election when she ran into sustained opposition, including from Mr Conroy.
She and Mr Landeryou are close and long time personal friends of Mr Shorten's. They have socialised and worked politically together for decades. Labor insiders regard Ms Kitching and Mr Landeryou as a close political team.
Hence, her marriage to Mr Landeryou has been especially problematic for her political career.
His aggressive and often defamatory blog - which he closed down in 2013, coinciding with Mr Shorten's rise to the party leadership - upset many in the party, including within the Right.
Such is Labor's ambivalence about Mr Landeryou that his application to rejoin the party after years as an outsider - officially at least - has remained unprocessed for months.
Mr Landeryou was arrested, with others, on the eve of this year's federal poll for late-night raids, where it is alleged he and others ripped down polling booth promotions for Liberal and Green candidates in the seat of Melbourne Ports. No charges have been laid.
Senior Labor figures are also concerned about the role of both Ms Kitching and Mr Landeryou in the scandal-plagued Health Workers Union, formerly the Health Services Union No.1 branch (HSU).
Ms Kitching was the union's general manager after the victory of a team led by Diana Asmar in 2012.
The union racked up heavy losses and was warned it risked insolvency after spending heavily to defend senior union officials in a case over a scam involving right of entry permits, which allow officials to access work sites.
A 2014 report by the Royal Commission into trade union corruption recommended criminal charges be considered against Ms Kitching, and others, over the permit scam.
It is unclear whether police have followed up the recommendations. On Thursday night, a Labor source said he hoped Ms Kitching would be judged on her merits, not on her partner.
The Shorten group was at odds with other sub-factions, including the group led by defence spokesman Richard Marles, and Mr Conroy.
However Fairfax Media understands Mr Conroy's main industrial backers, the Transport Workers Union, crucially broke with the outgoing powerbroker to back Ms Kitching.
Mr Marles and Mr Conroy are believed to have supported Ms Taylor. Other candidates included party activists Jacinta Ermacora, Julia Mason and Sarah Carter.
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