Leftwing senator Gavin Marshall will not contest the position of Senate deputy president in the new parliament after an intervention by the Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Marshall, a key ally of fellow Victorian leftwinger Kim Carr, was eventually prevailed upon by Shorten to vacate the post in favour of Sue Lines, a leftwinger from Western Australia, who enjoyed broad support in her grouping.
The appeal from Shorten to Marshall followed weeks of arm-twisting behind the scenes.
The internal ructions included lobbying by the new Carr left sub-faction to Lines to pull out of the race. As part of brokering a resolution, Guardian Australia has been told that the right faction has agreed that Marshall will be given a parliamentary trip to the United Nations next year – one of the more sought-after study tours offered to federal politicians – instead of a Labor parliamentarian from the right.
Marshall is part of a small breakaway group from the left that formed their own sub-faction in response to a push post-election by key national left figures to dump Carr, the veteran factional powerbroker from Victoria, from the left’s front bench lineup for the new parliament.
Carr ultimately remained on the frontbench after the bruising factional stoush after intervention from the right faction at Shorten’s behest.
Shorten had to expand the Labor ministry to accommodate Carr’s desire to remain on the frontbench. Carr’s stability pact with the right faction in his home state is an internal power structure that helps underpin Shorten’s leadership.
Marshall was a Senate deputy president in the last parliament and wanted to continue in that role, but his departure with Carr to the new sub-faction during the unedifying stoush meant he lost broad left support to remain in that job.
The deputy president’s job pays $40,000 more than the salary of a backbencher.
In a statement issued Monday ahead of a Labor caucus meeting in Canberra, Marshall said “recent events within the party have resulted in the position of deputy president being hotly contested within the ALP and the cause of some division”.
“This morning, the leader asked me not to contest this position in the interests of the party. As I have always put the interests of the party before my own, I have agreed to this request,” he said.
Marshall said he did not feel entitled to the position, and his focus was “securing and serving in a Labor government led by Bill Shorten”.
