Fight over CFMEU’s ability to preselect candidates threatens to split NSW Labor left

The secretary of the NSW CFMEU, Darren Greenfield, wrote an incensed letter about the union’s treatment by the left faction. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

An ugly preselection brawl within the New South Wales Labor left has threatened to split the faction ahead of the next state election, amid accusations of “rorts”, legal threats and ongoing criminal charges over allegations of union officials accepting bribes.

At the centre of the intra-factional fight is a bid by the hard left to block the powerful CFMEU and its allies from installing the prominent barrister Cameron Murphy into a winnable spot on the party’s upper house ticket ahead of the March election.