Labor senator Matt Thistlethwaite will soon be door-knocking after winning a resounding preselection vote for the NSW seat held by retiring federal MP Peter Garrett.
The 40-year-old beat Randwick Mayor Tony Bowen on Saturday by a branch vote of 136 to 105 for the marginal Sydney seat of Kingsford Smith, a Labor head office spokeswoman told AAP.
"We're very happy to have Matt on board," she said about the vote that had a higher than usual turnout.
Senator Thistlethwaite thanked the branch in a letter, saying he was going to hit the ground running and start door-knocking on Sunday.
On Tuesday, he rejected claims he was involved in branch-stacking.
It came after News Limited reported that about 58 people in Senator Thistlethwaite's local branch of Malabar paid their membership fees on March 31, which was the cut-off date to be eligible to vote in the preselection ballot.
Senator Thistlethwaite denied this was evidence of branch-stacking.
"I didn't recruit people to join on the same day," he told Sky News.
He said many Labor members renewed their memberships on that day because it was the deadline for fee payment.
The seat of Kingsford Smith has been held by the ALP since it was created in 1949.
Senator Thistlethwaite was Labor general secretary from 2008 until 2010 and currently holds the positions of parliamentary secretary for infrastructure, transport, Pacific Island affairs and multicultural affairs.
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