I don't know much about the selection process in Fowler, but it's curious that Labor tried to parachute KKK there specifically. Was there no other safe seat in Sydney available or was representing that particular constituency going to be helpful to her as immigration minister?
There were four retiring Labor members in NSW. Sharon Bird (Cunningham), Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter), Chris Hayes (Fowler) and Julie Owens (Parramatta).
Cunningham saw 18 year incumbent Sharon Bird retire, and as she's still very popular with local branches the pre-selection was stitched up for her staffer Alison Byrnes. Strike one.
After the nasty surprise in Hunter next election Labor needed a strong local candidate to massage the seat, so they got a coal mining olympic pistol shooting redneck agreed to by Fitzgibbon and Albo without local branch input. Strike two.
Parramatta is a fairly marginal seat losing a popular incumbent so Labor needed a high profile strong candidate with vague local ties. For all his faults Charlton is strong on policy, is a self-made man, grew up in Parra, still has family in Parra and proved fairly adept at campaigning (admittedly helped by the car crash Liberal pre-selection). Strike three.
So the only seat left is Fowler. The retiring member Chris Hayes is from the right and the left has no claim on it, so there was no factional problems. While Hayes and the local branches strongly supported Tu Le the western sydney branches have been well and truly neutered over the years, so it was unlikely they'd put up a fight. Keneally didn't have the factional support to beat O'Neill for the top senate spot, and dropping to third meant certain defeat. Keneally is very close to Albanese, he absolutely wanted her to stay part of the team so Fowler was the only option.
What Labor completely misjudged is Fowler already had a strong independent ready to jump in the race. Dai Le has strong name recognition and ran three strong challenges in the state seat of Cabramatta in 2008 and 2011 as a Liberal and in 2019 as an Independent.
What's the procedure for selecting Senate candidates? Why was the leadership able to stitch up House nominations for its preferred candidates but not for the Senate?
