High-profile Labor MP Emma Husar has backflipped on a promise not to contest the next federal election after it emerged the party had already chosen her replacement.
Ms Husar announced in August she would not run for the western Sydney seat of Lindsay amid an investigation into allegations of misconduct.
Claims of sexual harassment and lewd conduct were not upheld but the probe did confirm problems with her management approach.
The ABC understands former New South Wales state politician Diane Beamer has been picked by the ALP as its candidate.
Sources have said while Ms Beamer had not yet been formally preselected, locals within the Labor Party urged her to run and she had agreed.
But the incumbent insisted she was still the party's endorsed candidate.
"I do want to recontest the seat as the Labor member," Ms Husar told Sky News.
"The Labor Party in NSW have got a certain idea of how they want things to go, but I am here and I'm saying that I'm willing to put my hand up."
No longer walking away
The MP did not rule out contesting the seat as an independent candidate if she was formally dumped.
"I love my job, so I would consider doing whatever I need to do to stay there and continue doing my job," she said.
"I never joined politics to play the game of politics; I've always wanted to stand up for my community and fight for my community."
Ms Husar claimed the seat at the last election and holds it on a tight margin of just 1 per cent.
She blamed, "a few bad seeds that think they can wield their power of 50 or 60 years ago" for undermining her.
"We saw some of the darker elements of the NSW branch [of the Labor Party] potentially at play here."
Ms Beamer was a state minister and was the member for the electorate of Badgerys Creek and then Mulgoa between 1995 and 2011.
The seat covers much of the same geographic area as the electorate of Lindsay.
