MUA’s Chris Brown chosen as Labor candidate for Fremantle

MUA organiser Chris Brown.

Maritime Union of Australia organiser Chris Brown has been preselected by Labor to contest the federal seat of Fremantle – a move that Bill Shorten says demonstrates the “diversity” of his party.

Mr Brown, who has spent 29 years working on the waterfront, has promised to “earn the trust and support of the wider community” after beating Fremantle deputy mayor Josh Wilson, the chief-of-staff to retiring MP Melissa Parke.

Labor has held Fremantle since 1934, and for all but one term since 1928. John Curtin and Kim Beazley are among the party luminaries to hold the seat.

Former WA Premier Carmen Lawrence, who also held Fremantle between 1994 and 2007, last month criticised the potential selection of Mr Brown as the Labor candidate.

“Labor would be seriously mistaken endorsing him,” Dr Lawrence told the West Australian.
“He would owe his allegiance to a union that barely operates within the electorate. There is a real risk that Fremantle could be lost to Labor.”

However Bill Shorten defended Mr Brown’s candidacy as showcasing the opposition’s “diversity of candidates”.

The Opposition Leader said Mr Brown had run several small businesses over the decades and had only recently become an MUA official.

“I have no doubt that this government will try to label people for their union background; trust me, I know that,” Mr Shorten, a former Australian Workers Union secretary, told the National Press Club in Canberra.

“What I also say is that what we want in this community, in politics, are people from a wide degree of backgrounds and he has a much more broader background I think than people have given him credit for.”

Mr Shorten said Mr Brown would “stand up for working people” on issues of employment, health, education, housing and the environment.

Ms Parke, 49, a former UN lawyer in the Gaza Strip who served two terms in parliament, announced her retirement in January.