INDEPENDENT Alan Lappin has accused Labor powerbrokers of double standards in rejecting his bid to stand for party pre-selection in Indi.
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Wodonga councillor Eric Kerr will be the Labor candidate at the next federal election, but Mr Lappin said yesterday his recent application to join the party and stand for pre-selection had been thwarted by internal party forces.
Mr Lappin said he has been told by party chiefs he couldn’t be the Labor candidate because of a seven-year rule preventing people who had stood at previous elections as independents or for other parties.
But the 63-year-old said Labor had conveniently overlooked a recent example of Jennifer Podesta being chosen to stand for Labor in last year’s state election.
Ms Podesta stood as an independent at the 2013 federal election when Liberal Sophie Mirabella was toppled by fellow independent Cathy McGowan.
Ms Podesta also preferenced Mrs Mirabella ahead of Labor but party chiefs still selected her as the state Labor candidate a year later.
Mr Lappin said the Labor snub had convinced him to stand again as an independent in Indi.
“It has really flattened me,” she said.
“I thought Labor at that level would have been a bit better.
“They have convinced me of my original thoughts that Labor doesn’t care about the interests of average Australians.”
Labor’s federal electoral assembly president in Indi Lauren McCully last night disputed Mr Lappin’s claim that a seven-year exclusion rule.
“It is a minimum two years from the date that person ceased being a member of another political organisation or the date in which they formally nominated against an ALP endorsed candidate,” she said.
“In Alan’s case, two years would be September 2015 because that is two years since the last election.”
Ms McCully said the party’s administrative committee could waive the two-year exclusion.
Mr Lappin withdrew from the 2013 election race after suffering a heart-attack soon after the campaign started.
He said he remained vehemently opposed to Labor asylum-seeker policy but was still convinced by friends with Labor leanings he could be an effective candidate and win Indi.
“I make no bones about it I am a socialist in ideals,” he said. “But I picked up the vibe very quickly I wasn’t wanted.”