Gary Gray, the Labor member for the Western Australian electorate of Brand, has announced that he will retire from Parliament at this year’s election.

Gray, 57, has held Brand for three terms since he succeeded the former ALP leader, Kim Beazley, in 2007. He announced his retirement tonight at a meeting of the Brand Electorate Council.

Gray said it was “time to move on, and to support renewal in the WA Federal Parliamentary Party”.

Last year, Gray and the member for Perth, Alannah MacTiernan, were at risk of losing their preselections in the face of a push for control by the ALP state secretary, Patrick Gorman, who demanded that they sign a “candidate’s pledge”. The party’s National Executive intervened in the disputes in support of the MPs’ right to nominate. Gray also faced a challenge from the party’s Left faction via a candidate from the Electrical Trades Union.

At the 2013 election, Gray held Brand by a margin of 2.88%. Despite a nationwide swing of 3.61%, and a statewide swing in Western Australia of 1.87%, the swing against Gray was just 0.45%.

Following the redistribution of electoral boundaries in Western Australia, it is estimated that Brand’s margin is now 3.8%. [Read more…]