Premier Daniel Andrews is facing an internal backlash over a deal that could land former Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett a safe seat in State Parliament's upper house.
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Ms Garrett is currently the member for the marginal seat of Brunswick, but wants to run for a safer seat in either the Victorian or federal parliament.
Now, under a peace deal being negotiated among Labor’s Victorian factions, she may be offered a state upper house position.
Mr Andrews and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten are understood to have negotiated a deal for Ms Garrett to enter the Victorian Upper House at November's state election.
The party’s groupings look close to agreeing a deal to carve up the vacant federal parliamentary seats in the state, to meet demands from Ms Garrett’s allies to "find a home" for the high-profile former minister.
But so unpopular is Ms Garrett in some party circles that several Labor MPs including senior cabinet ministers have approached the Premier wanting the deal to be dumped.
The settlement taking shape – not yet agreed by factional bosses – would see state upper house member Daniel Mulino take the federal seat of Maribyrnong, due to be vacated by Mr Shorten.
Ms Garrett would then slot into Mr Mulino’s seat in the Legislative Council. Mr Shorten would move to the newly created federal seat of Fraser.
The fate of the federal seat of Melbourne Ports, vacated by veteran MP Michael Danby and to be renamed Macnamara, also remains uncertain. Glen Eira councillor Mary Delahunty, Labor staffer Josh Burns and Nick Dyrenfurth of the John Curtin Research Centre are all in the hunt.
And a tussle within the left of the party is developing over the federal seat of Jagajaga, vacated by former federal minister Jenny Macklin this week, between one group which backs local activist Sonja Terpstra and allies of former Julia Gillard staffer Ryan Batchelor.
If a deal can be negotiated between the various factions and sub-factions on the three federal seats and Mr Mulino and Ms Garrett’s future, the arrangement would be rubber-stamped by the party’s powerful national executive this month.
It would also mean party members in both Jagajaga and Macnamara, who have not voted in preselections since the 1990s, would again miss out on open ballots to choose their candidates.
One senior figure from the party's right said it might be a price worth paying for internal stability.
“People would be unhappy if the preselections were called in from the point of view of local democracy,” the source said. “But they would accept it, for the sake of peace.”
Neither Ms Garrett or Mr Mulino could be contacted on Friday for comment.
