VIC: Branch stacking not the reason for MP s defeat: Kennett

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-1999
VIC: Branch stacking not the reason for MP s defeat: Kennett

MELBOURNE, Aug 12 AAP - Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett today denied ethnic branch stacking
was behind the bitter preselection defeat of veteran MP David Perrin last night by one of the
premier's former staff.

Mr Perrin was defeated by Mr Kennett's former multicultural affairs adviser, Nick Kotsiras,
in a ballot to decide the Liberal Party's candidate for the safe lower house seat of Bulleen.

Mr Perrin, a social conservative who has held the seat for 14 years, blamed ethnic branch
stacking and his own opposition to some of the party's social policies as the deciding factor.

The premier denied both charges on Melbourne radio today.

"It is wrong to say there was branch stacking; it is wrong to say David was not preselected
because of his views - quite the opposite," he said.

Bulleen was an area which had experienced a large influx of Greek and Italian Australians
in recent years and there was no basis for claims of branch stacking, he said.

"He didn't just lose last night - he was thoroughly beaten, and the preselection panel has
decided they want to opt for another candidate," Mr Kennett said.

He denied playing any role in the contest.

Mr Perrin said today his defeat showed that branch-stacking was now as much a part of
Liberal preselections as Labor ones.

"It was like trying to run a sprint race from about 10 metres behind the starting line," he
told AAP.

"But I am flattered that this was the only way I could be defeated."

The stacking of local branches with new Greek-Australian members had probably cost him 16
votes, he said.

A Liberal Party administrative committee decision disallowing some of his own supporters
cost him further support.

Mr Perrin said he knew he was facing defeat last night when the preselection panel asked
him persistent questions alleging party disloyalty.

One question referred to an incident in the mid-1980s when he crossed the floor to oppose
embryo experimentation; another referred to his opposition to the party line on equal
opportunities laws.

"I tried to indicate that it was the Menzies tradition to take conscience votes," he said.

Mr Perrin will not seek preselection elsewhere and is yet to decide if he will leave the
Liberal Party after 33 years as a member.

He said he was not inclined to stand as an Independent.

AAP pjb/er/ah/br

KEYWORD: BULLEEN (CARRIED EARLIER)

1999 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.