Queanbeyan-based former MP Mike Kelly could lose out on the Senate vacancy created by Bob Carr to another former MP who is against gay marriage.
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Dr Kelly held Eden-Monaro for six years and was minister for defence materiel in the Labor government before being narrowly defeated at the election by Liberal candidate Peter Hendy. He intends to nominate for the Senate vacancy created by Senator Carr’s resignation on Wednesday. If successful, he would establish an office in Queanbeyan from where he could help Labor’s campaigns in Eden-Monaro, Hume and Gilmore.
Dr Kelly made it clear he considered a post in the Senate as a short-term option because he would like to recontest Eden-Monaro.
Asked about putting a woman into the Senate, he said 50 per cent of the opposition’s executive were women.
‘‘We don’t suffer by comparison with the Coalition in that respect,’’ he said.
The Senate vacancy will be filled by the Labor Right faction in NSW. The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, the largest trade union in Australia with about 230,000 members, is backing Deb O’Neill, who was defeated in the seat of Robertson.
The union’s national secretary is Joe de Bruyn, who slammed the Gillard Labor government for ‘‘pandering’’ to the Greens on gay marriage.
While Ms O’Neill is being promoted on gender grounds, Australian Workers Union boss Paul Howes suggested his pro-gay marriage views were a factor in opposition to him within the Right when he pulled out of the Senate race.
‘‘Maybe it would have been a different kettle of fish if I had a different view,’’ he said then.
Ms O’Neill spoke in favour of a conscience vote in federal Parliament, and against gay marriage, at Labor’s national conference two years ago.
‘‘We prize marriage and understand it very certainly as a union between a man and a woman,’’ she said then.
‘‘Perhaps time will change the broader community view on the Marriage Act but frankly, I think this will remain an issue on which our society will remain divided for some time yet.’’
Dr Kelly said Country Labor was not well represented in NSW after the election and he was concerned at the Coalition’s policies for rural and regional Australia, including the NBN and clean energy policies.
