Stooge ‘offer’ rebuff

Andrew Mathieson
THE LIBERALS facing defeat in Corangamite knocked back the offer of a stooge Nationals’ candidate, according to a former councillor.
The former councillor said he offered three weeks before the election to stand as a National and direct preferences to Liberal Sarah Henderson but her party believed she could win without his help.
The man, who did not want to be identified, raised the offer with Geelong’s Liberal House but party headquarters in Melbourne rebuked the idea.
“They got back to me a couple of days later and said ‘Thanks, but no thanks – I think we’re just about right’,” he said.
Incumbent Labor MP Darren Cheeseman had a 500-vote lead over Ms Henderson when the Independent went to press on Wednesday.
The former councillor believed Nationals’ preferences could have guaranteed Ms Henderson a big enough swing to win the seat.
He had rejected a Shooters and Fishers Party approach to stand in Corangamite before his Nationals offer to the Liberals.
“My feeling was the election would go down to the wire and Greens’ preferences would get Cheeseman over the line, he said.
“I thought rather than standing for the Shooters and Fishers Party, which might have only got 50 votes, it would be better to have Nationals representation in Corangamite to swing preferences.
“They need to put Nationals with Liberals in every seat, otherwise the big risk is the Greens get in as Labor stooges.”
Nationals state director Luke O’Sullivan said the party would have considered the offer if Liberals had raised it with officials.
“In hindsight it’s easy to look back and see whether the Nationals would have stood a candidate in Corangamite; that if she’d fell a few hundred votes short it would have made the difference,” Mr O’Sullivan said.
“Corangamite had never really been on the radar before for the Nationals.”
Liberal party headquarters had not returned the Independent’s calls for comment when the paper went to press.