ALP ballot will be clean

BY ANDREW MATHIESON
LABOR Party bosses have promised this weekend’s internal Corangamite vote will be clean of branch-stacking allegations.
Corangamite aspirants Christine Couzens, Peter McMullin and Darren Cheeseman, will contest the right to challenge sitting Liberal member Stewart McArthur at the next federal election.
Victorian branch state organiser Nathan Murphy doubted chances of a repeat of the bitter infighting that marred the Corio preselection process nearly 12 months ago.
Factional rivals were at loggerheads over claims the powerful Unity Right faction had transported in busloads of unknown members from Melbourne to vote.
Union heavyweight Richard Marles succeeded sitting Corio federal member Gavan O’Connor. Mr Marles’s factional ally, John Eren, later romped in to seize the vacant state seat of Lara.
Mr Murphy said safeguards were in place to ensure only bona fide rank-and-file members voted on the weekend.
A central party meeting on Tuesday night will approve the members’ choice and determine the final result in a split vote.
“There are strict rules in place to determine who votes,” he said.
Ms Couzens, vice-president of Geelong Trades Hall and electoral officer for sitting Geelong MP Ian Trezise, believed she offered a viable alternative to defeat Mr McArthur, 69, who has held the seat since 1984.
“Let’s try a different approach and let’s get a woman in there’,” Ms Couzens said.
Former Geelong mayor Peter McMullin was guarded on his chances of back-to-back preselection wins.
“It really is an internal matter,” Cr McMullin said.