The Labor Party's national executive has endorsed Kingborough mayor Dean Winter as a state election candidate for Franklin, after a week of factional squabbling over an initial decision not to preselect him.
Mr Winter's candidacy was granted approval at the eleventh hour, with the nomination period for the state election to close at 12pm on Wednesday.
The Tasmanian Labor administrative committee decided against preselecting Mr Winter more than a week ago, a move that infuriated the party's Right faction, which the 35-year-old is aligned with, and threatened to derail the party's campaign.
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But, on Tuesday, Labor leader Rebecca White wrote to the national executive to ask that Mr Winter, a former adviser to Ms White, be endorsed as the sixth ALP state election candidate in the electorate of Franklin.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Ms White welcomed the national executive's decision to approve Mr Winter as a candidate and said there was "no doubt this matter needed to be taken control of".
"Dean will be an outstanding candidate for the Labor team and will play a huge role as we work over the next few weeks toward achieving majority Labor government," Ms White said.
"My call to action, right across the party and the community, is to get behind the Labor campaign and make sure that we can take action to fix the health system and provide better access to health care, to address the housing affordability issues that we see across the state and to provide more training and employment opportunities for Tasmanians."
Mr Winter said he was "proud" to be running as a Labor candidate.
"To get the late call-up, it's a bit of a surprise but a really pleasant one because it's something that I think I can contribute positively to. I think I've got some skills that complement the existing Tasmanian Parliamentary Labor Party and hopefully with those skills I can contribute to my community, not just in Kingborough but across Franklin," he said.
Ms White's intervention in the preselection process comes after the powerful Australian Workers Union wrote to the national executive to call for it to either overturn the administrative committee's preselection decisions or preselect Mr Winter.
Some members of state Labor's dominant Left faction believe Mr Winter has expressed anti-worker views.
It's understood that certain figures in the Left, at a state and national level, are disappointed with Ms White's intervention and she could face consequences for it. However, one Labor source said Ms White had "stepped up" and shown she was a "strong leader".
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Rob Inglis
Rob Inglis is a reporter with The Examiner, covering state and federal politics. He is based in Hobart.
Rob Inglis is a reporter with The Examiner, covering state and federal politics. He is based in Hobart.
