Turf wars. The long-time secretary of Labor’s Victorian Socialist Left faction, federal member for Scullin Andrew Giles, is holding a fundraiser with fellow Labor Left ally (and Wayne Swan’s new BFF) Tanya Plibersek.

Fundraisers are usually held in a politician’s local electorate, or, failing that, the city centre, which is a nice central place for high-profile out-of-town guests like Plibersek to get to. Not so this fundraiser. It’s being held in Northcote, 20  minutes’ drive from the CBD at best, and, more pointedly, in the federal seat of Batman, held by Labor Unity patriot David Feeney. Labor Right sources whisper that Feeney was none-too-pleased about this — his office apparently wasn’t even informed about the fundraiser until it was advertised.

In Giles’ defence, there’ll be plenty of hipsters keen to hear Plibersek speak in Northcote. On a two-party preferred basis, the electorate is narrowly split between Green and Labor voters, and one presumes Plibersek will have plenty of supporters in the area. Not that this is being held in Giles’ favour by Unity figures, who are saying that if Giles is so keen to court the Greens vote, maybe he’d do more good holding the fundraiser in the seat of Melbourne instead (held at both a state and federal level by the Greens). Giles has already held one fundraiser this year with a high-profile colleague — Anthony Albanese’s gig in Carlton earlier this year was a fundraiser for the MP. We could make a joke about how no one would turn up to a fundraiser in Melbourne’s outer-northern suburbs, but that wouldn’t be very fair.

*Heard anything that might interest Crikey? Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au or use our guaranteed anonymous form.