A press release arrived last
Friday from the Victorian division of the Liberal Party, announcing the
endorsement of four new lower house candidates for next year’s state
election. One of them, Benambra, is a Liberal seat where the sitting
member is retiring; the other three – Gembrook, Bentleigh and Ripon –
are Labor-held, ranging from very marginal to fairly safe.

But
although the statement from State Director Julian Sheezel says they
were “officially endorsed” by Administrative Committee the previous day
(i.e. 1 September), word seems to have got out sooner. A quick Google
search finds an editorial from the Border Mail
reporting that “The Liberal Party has adopted a stay local philosophy
in endorsing Wodonga police officer Bill Tilley as its candidate to
replace Tony Plowman in the seat of Benambra.” The date? August 8th,
three and a half weeks earlier.

Similarly in Gembrook: the Pakenham/Berwick Gazette reported
on the preselection more than two weeks earlier, on 17 August, saying
that the candidate “is set to be officially endorsed by the party’s
administrative committee when it meets on 19 August.” Sure enough, on
23 August, a press release
from Robert Doyle tells us that the previous day he had “a tour of
Officer Primary School with … Liberal candidate for Gembrook Simon
Wildes.”

Candidate selection might be going well, but someone needs to get the story straight for the media.