The federal director of the Liberal Party, Andrew Robb, said last night that winning the seat of Canberra would be a very difficult task, despite the Liberals’ good result in the ACT election. Earlier, the party had been undecided about whether to run a candidate at all because it was a 10 per cent seat. Mr Robb said this cautious approach had been confirmed by subsequent polling. Even with things going well for the Liberals locally in the ACT campaign and election the party was still down nine points federally in the ACT, according to state and territory break-ups in national polling done by The Sydney Morning Herald. Considering that Brindabella had got the least swing to the Liberals locally it showed that “”the seat of Canberra would be a pretty tall order”. “”But nothing is impossible,” he said.
When the Act Liberal Party expressed doubts about standing after the resignation of Ros Kelly, the former Liberal Member for Canberra, John Haslem, denounced the lack of will to stand and said he would be willing to stand again.
Mr Haslem won the seat in 1975 and again _ against expectations _ in 1977 before losing to Mrs Kelly in the 1980 election. In the 1980 election it was among the three most marginal seats in the country. Mr Haslem has formally announced he will seek pre-selection. Pre-selection nominations close at 5pm today (Wednesday). Candidates will attend the usual presentation and questions at a Canberra branch meeting on Thursday night before the pre-selection ballot on Saturday. There are likely to be up to 10 candidates. Besides Mr Haslem other candidates include Assembly candidate, Gwen Wilcox; and former Peacock staffer and Foreign-Affairs officer Jane Drake-Brockman. Some interstate interest has been expressed in the seat. Nominees have to be supported by 10 members of the party who are eligible to vote in the pre-selection.
Members of the Canberra branch who have attended a meeting in the past six months are eligible to vote. Mrs Wilcox is not entirely out of the Assembly race. There is a remote chance that Carnell preferences may give her the third Liberal Molonglo seat instead of Greg Cornwell. New counting yesterday had not significantly changed the parties’ positions. However, there was speculation about who would get the Liberals’ last seat in each electorate, with a suggestion that the women’s factor could favour Cheryl Hill in Ginnderra over Harold Hird as well as Mrs Wilcox. Mr Robb said that the Leader of the Opposition, John Howard, was keen for a Liberal candidate to stand.
The vacancy came about during Alexander Downer’s leadership. At the time election commentator Malcolm Mackerras suggested that Mr Howard, who had had a good record at by-elections while leader previously, was anxious to contest. Mr Robb said that Mr Howard would be playing a normal leader’s role in a by-election. He would take a part, but precisely what had yet to be determined. The local division was usually in charge of scheduling and organising in consultation with the national organisation. As to Labor candidate, Sue Robinson, Mr Robb said it was an interesting choice for Labor given her history with ACT health and the Vitab affair.