Western Sydney Labor Party figures say a move to parachute a high-profile candidate from the city's eastern suburbs into the marginal federal seat of Parramatta is "undemocratic" and a "slap in the face" for the multicultural community.
Andrew Charlton, a managing director of multinational information technology company Accenture and former adviser to Kevin Rudd, is reported to be the candidate favoured by Labor Party leader Anthony Albanese to replace retiring MP Julie Owens.
Mr Charlton lives in the city's affluent eastern suburbs in a $16 million home with views of Sydney Harbour, but is reportedly prepared to move to Parramatta should he be elected.
Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union lawyer Abha Devasia is one of many local candidates vying for pre-selection.
She said Labor should have acknowledged the need for more diversity in the wake of criticism of the decision to parachute Kristina Keneally into the Western Sydney seat of Fowler.
"I desperately want Labor to win but selecting a white, millionaire man from the eastern suburbs to run for Parramatta would be a tone-deaf choice and wilfully disrespectful to our community," Ms Devasia said.
One Western Sydney Labor Party member, who did not want to be identified, said the plan to bypass a local ballot was a "slap in the face".
"He [Albanese] needs to be careful if he puts [in] the wrong candidate," the Labor figure said.
Last year, Mr Albanese angered some party members in Western Sydney with his decision to parachute Kristina Keneally into the safe Labor seat of Fowler, bypassing local candidate Tu Le, a lawyer with Vietnamese heritage.
Multicultural electorate
Labor holds Parramatta by a narrow margin of just 3.5 per cent and the seat will be fiercely contested after the retirement of Ms Owens, who has represented the area for the past 18 years.
A third of the electorate has Indian, Chinese or Lebanese ancestry, according to the latest census.
James Shaw, secretary of the Parramatta Federal Electorate Council, has demanded Labor's National Executive hold a rank-and-file ballot to pre-select a candidate.
"The decision as to who the candidate is should be made by the party members. They're the party rules and that's the process that should be followed."
Mr Shaw said the first he'd heard of Mr Charlton's potential candidacy was "by reading it in the papers".
"I think it is poor that we haven't been consulted," he told the ABC.
"The party members standing up has nothing to do with Andrew or anyone else personally, it's simply about democracy in the party."
Contenders call for rank and file ballot
Durga Owen, from the same left faction as Julie Owens, was considered a front-runner for pre-selection.
Ms Owen arrived in Australia in 1995 as a Tamil refugee, before becoming an aid worker, solicitor, and law lecturer at Western Sydney University.
She said she would support Andrew Charlton if he were to be pre-selected but insisted a rank-and-file ballot was essential to party democracy.
"I'm just disappointed that members of the party locally weren't able to have that say," she said.
Party member says candidate should reflect demographic
Vice-president of the Parramatta Labor branch, Alan Mascarenhas, is another candidate who is hoping to stand for pre-selection.
The son of Indian migrants, Mr Mascarenhas ran as the Labor candidate for Epping at the 2019 state election, recording an 8 per cent swing against Dominic Perrottet.
"Obviously, there are strong advantages to picking a local who lives in the area, reflects the demographics and knows the local issues back to front," he said.
Dundas-Rydalmere branch secretary Anthony Ellard, from the right faction, is another candidate lining up to contest a pre-selection ballot.
Mr Ellard said although Mr Charlton appeared to be an intelligent man, a private-sector career "is very different from being a backbench MP in the marginal seat".
"You need a local that understands the local issues, what actually affects the individuals on a day-to-day basis," he said.
Call for diversity of voices
Liverpool councillor and former state Labor candidate Charishma Kaliyanda denied reports she was interested in running in Parramatta.
She said candidates who "represent the diversity of the area" had been overlooked in favour of Mr Charlton, who "doesn't have an immediate connection to the local community".
"We want to make sure that we have a diversity of voices in all of our parliaments … it's really important to consider whether this pick is reflective of that," she said.
"What the boardrooms of Accenture need may be different to what the community of Parramatta needs."
Mr Charlton could not be reached for comment.
