A Labor candidate for the state seat of Franklin has denounced his party's policies on poker machines and protest laws, saying he is determined to "eradicate" both of them.
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Hobart-based barrister Fabiano Cangelosi says he won't be standing down as a candidate, despite his public criticism.
In a letter to Labor members registered in the Southern electorates of Franklin and Clark, Mr Cangelosi outlined his concerns about the party's workplace protest policy and its stance on poker machines, describing both as "wholly repugnant" to the "spirit of the Labor movement".
The letter - seen by The Examiner - was sent to members about 10pm on Tuesday night.
It came after Labor leader Rebecca White asked the ALP national executive to intervene in the state branch's preselection process and ensure that Kingborough mayor Dean Winter was endorsed as the sixth candidate for the party in Franklin.
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Ms White's intervention has angered powerful elements of Labor's Left faction.
Mr Cangelosi - who says he's been a member of the party for six months - said Labor's workplace protest policy, which would create an aggravated trespass offence and establish timber harvesting safety zones, would not "protect resource-reliant communities".
Shortly before being preselected as a Labor candidate, Mr Cangelosi appeared at a Bob Brown Foundation rally, where he spoke against the state Liberal government's failed anti-protest laws.
Of the party's decision to abandon the policy it took to the 2018 election to remove pokies from pubs and clubs and confine them to casinos, Mr Cangelosi said it was made "in full knowledge of the tremendous harm that will be done to those who ought to be able [to] look to this party for justice".
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"It unbalances unequal scales, committing the poor to financial devastation, the vulnerable to depression and suicide, and working families to fracture and ruin," he wrote. "That the poker machine industry lifts working families through job creation and returns benefit to the community is a shameless lie."
It was revealed last week that Labor had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tasmanian Hospitality Association, pledging to "support the rights" of pubs and clubs to operate pokies.
In spite of Mr Cangelosi's criticism of parts of Labor's policy platform, he said he supported Ms White as leader and had "profound admiration" for her.
That the poker machine industry lifts working families through job creation and returns benefit to the community is a shameless lie.
- Fabiano Cangelosi, Franklin Labor candidate
Mr Cangelosi said on Wednesday that he wasn't afraid to speak against Labor's policies on pokies and protest laws and that there were other party policies he believed "could be better".
"I will not hesitate to talk about my position in a frank way," he said. "On anything."
"[Labor] members have been telling me that they think it is the right decision to state clearly on the record what my position is."
Ms White said Mr Cangelosi still had her backing, but noted that the Labor Party had clear policies on the issues he had raised and that these policies had been agreed on by the Labor caucus.
"I've made it incredibly clear to [Mr Cangelosi] that the Labor policy is very different to his views," she said. "And he's now aware of that."
"I'm happy to have a diverse range of opinions from candidates. But what needs to be expressed very clearly to the community of Tasmania is that he's speaking in a way that is not consistent with the Labor Party policy, it's not consistent with the caucus' position on this matter and, as far as I'm concerned, that matter has ... been resolved."
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