Channel 7 journalist quits to seek Labor nomination
Labor’s changing of the guard accelerated today with prominent television reporter Jayne Stinson nominating for ALP preselection in the key election battleground of Badcoe.
Jayne Stinson, pictured with her former boss Julia Gillard, has quit Channel 7 to stand for Badcoe. Photo: Facebook
InDaily has been told Stinson – who covers courts and politics at Channel 7 and is a regular commentator on FIVEaa and ABC Adelaide – is the right-faction’s favoured candidate for the seat, which fell vacant with the announced retirement of left-wing veteran Steph Key on Friday.
The move wrong-foots Elder incumbent Annabel Digance’s mooted move to the neighbouring seat, whose nominal 4.2 per cent margin in the proposed boundary redistribution makes it a highly-sought prize. Digance confirmed to InDaily on Friday that she was considering switching seats, conceding Elder’s shift into relatively safe Liberal territory would make it a “challenge” to retain.
Stinson handed in her resignation to Channel 7 this morning and it’s understood she recently moved into the electorate.
“I can confirm that I will nominate for Labor preselection for the seat of Badcoe,” she told InDaily in a statement.
“Steph Key has long been a passionate representative for the people of Ashford, a dedicated social justice advocate and a role model for women in politics. It would be an honour to follow in her footsteps.”
It’s understood Stinson, who previously lived in the Croydon electorate, had held designs on running for that seat once incumbent Michael Atkinson retired. She has previously worked as Atkinson’s media adviser, as well as for the Rudd and Gillard governments federally.
However, as InDaily reported back in 2015, Croydon has been long promised to recent Upper House newcomer and rising Labor star Peter Malinauskas, who announced his nomination in the seat yesterday after Atkinson made his departure official on the weekend.
The one-time Attorney-General and current lower house Speaker will be joined in retirement by partner and left-faction luminary Jennifer Rankine, formalising their relationship as the closest the ALP has come – along with the elevation of Weatherill himself – to factional detente in a generation or more.
Weatherill told InDaily it was “terrific to see the Labor Party attracting young and talented individuals like Jayne to the preselection process”.
