Sam Benson for Batman and Australia': labor pre-selection problems, the ethnic vote and the ghost of Benson

Abstract

The 1995 battle for Batman has held the public's attention for some months. Two local candidates for ALP pre-selection have been disappointed and, thanks to support by Canberra-based members of the Party, an outsider - Martin Ferguson - has won. This struggle can be seen as an odd echo from the 1960s when the ALP Victorian Central Executive twice intervened in pre-selections in Batman. Ethnicity was an issue then as now, but the context was very different.