DISENDORSED federal Labor candidate Chris Brown says no one seemed interested in his historic assault charge until the issue blew up in his face this week.

On Thursday morning Opposition leader Bill Shorten accepted Labor  national secretary George Wright’s recommendation to drop Mr Brown for not revealing two convictions before his endorsement.

Fremantle deputy mayor Josh Wilson, who’d had the support of the local branch during preselection, has been endorsed instead.

But Mr Brown says he wasn’t legally required to disclose the assault charge, nor one for drink driving, because they’d been spent (legally expunged).

He says he raised it with an unnamed party official a month ago only because he wanted to use the incident that led to the assault as part of a campaign strategy, and was advised it wouldn’t be a problem.

“I have a family friend who lost a son to a one-punch hit and I wanted to run it as a campaign issue, to highlight the level of violence in Fremantle,” Mr Brown told the Herald.

“I told the ABC, but they weren’t interested.

“They said there wasn’t anything they could use about a 35-year-old spent conviction,” he claims.

Mr Brown says he was the victim in the 1985 incident, having been held down by two men while a third, who he’d exchanged words with earlier, repeatedly punched him.

He says two police officers came to his aid, but dazed from the bashing, he accidentally made contact with one. He says the charge was so minor he got a good behaviour bond.

Mr Brown says it’s “unclear” whether any of his assailants faced charges.

But he says it’s clear Labor has double standards, noting some sitting MPs have worse criminal convictions.

Asked if he meant he’d been targeted by the party because of his Maritime union affiliation, he wouldn’t comment, but his fiercely twitching, arched eyebrow revealed intense feelings about the issue.

by STEVE GRANT