Matt Keogh faces challenge from Labor left in battle for new federal seat of Burt
|
Version 0 of 1. Matt Keogh, the lawyer who lost out to new Liberal MP Andrew Hastie in September’s Canning byelection, is facing a challenge from within the Labor party on his bid to stand for the new federal seat of Burt. Related: Confessions of a Canning byelection candidate: 'I'm not that cool,' says Matt Keogh Keogh, who lost the two-party-preferred Canning vote 44.75 to 55.25 to Hastie, a swing of 6.5% towards Labor from the 2013 federal election, indicated on polling day he would stand for preselection again, saying: “I’ll tell you this: this campaign has invigorated me even further to make sure that we are sending a strong presence from Labor to Canberra to make sure we are standing up for Western Australia.” He confirmed to Guardian Australia on Monday he would be standing for preselection in Burt but shied away from commenting on whether he had the support of grassroots party members, saying: “We will see how it goes.” Nominations for preselection close on 6 November. Two days after the poll he told local newspaper the Examiner he intended to stand for preselection for Burt. “I’m committed to the area, this campaign has even further invigorated my desire to stand up for the area that I grew up in, in our national parliament and make sure that both my patch and WA as a whole is not neglected by the government,” he said. The proposed electorate of Burt would be carved out of the northern half of the Canning electorate, centred around Kelmscott and Armadale, the suburbs where Keogh polled the strongest, as well as parts of the neighbouring Liberal-held electorates of Hasluck and Tangney. Local Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan, who served in state parliament for the upper house seat of East Metropolitan (which includes the suburbs around Armadale) for 17 years before resigning to stand for federal parliament in 2010, has given Keogh her support for the seat. But grassroots members of the party are reportedly pushing for a member of the Labor left to get preselection. Keogh is from the right. Pierre Yang, a councillor for the city of Gosnells, confirmed to Guardian Australia he will stand for preselection. “I will put my name forward but then the party has processes to go through. We will be going through that process, so it will be for the party members to decide,” Yang said. According to a report in News Corp tabloid the Sunday Times, Yang, 32, could have the support of the left. Lisa Griffiths, a medical scientist at Sir Charles Gairdner hospital in Perth who has previously run for state parliament, has also said she will stand for preselection. |