Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou has announced that she will end her political career at the next federal election and has endorsed a prominent member of the Palestinian-Australian community, Basem Abdo to succeed her.
According to The Guardian, the veteran Labor member for Calwell in Melbourne’s outer north-west has informed Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, that she will step down at the upcoming poll due by the middle of 2025.
“I just want to stop and smell the roses,” Vamvakinou, who was first elected in 2001, said on Sunday.
The Greek Australian politician added that she hoped her former adviser Abdo would be preselected to contest Calwell at the next federal poll.
“I am very committed to giving opportunities to a new generation of people who will be able to go forward and reconnect with Labor in what has now become a very diverse and volatile political constituency,” Vamvakinou stated.
“He [Abdo] is the kind of generation now that we need to reconnect with and become relevant to. He is very bright and [I believe he will] make a great contribution.”
While preselection won’t take place until later this year, The Guardian shared that Abdo has strong support within Labor’s socialist wing.
Source: The Guardian
