Fed: Neal suffers crushing defeat in preselection row

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2000
Fed: Neal suffers crushing defeat in preselection row

By Sharon Labi

SYDNEY, Dec 18 AAP - The wife of ALP powerbroker John Della Bosca today suffered a
crushing defeat when the party's national executive ended a bitter preselection row in
a marginal seat.

Belinda Neal had pushed for a new preselection ballot in the Central Coast seat of
Robertson after she narrowly lost to school librarian Trish Moran 87-85, citing ballot
irregularities.

But federal opposition leader Kim Beazley intervened in the bitter row, convening a
special national executive meeting in Sydney today.

With electoral rorts gnawing away at the ALP in Queensland, the last thing Mr Beazley
wanted heading into an election year was a spat between Labor candidates in the crucial
New South Wales seat of Robertson.

In a secret ballot Ms Neal lost the vote 7-14, even failing to win the support of her
nine voting factional members, according to ALP sources.

Mr Beazley said the vote did not spell the end of Ms Neal's political career and said
he believed the matter was now behind the ALP.

"Today's meeting was an act of the national executive taking responsibility for the
general welfare of the party," Mr Beazley told reporters.

"I believe this is the end of the matter and the candidates stated as much during the
course of the meeting and for that I was grateful."

Ms Neal failed to secure the support from her right faction, which held nine of the 21 votes.

Her husband, a voting member of the national executive, did not attend the meeting
because of a conflict of interest but voted by proxy through Senator Steve Hutchins.

Senator Hutchins was the only person to speak in Ms Neal's favour during the meeting
which lasted almost three hours.

Even the right-aligned and Della Bosca-anointed NSW general secretary Eric Roozendaal
did not speak in favour of the former NSW senator.

A party source said Ms Neal produced research done by the party's official pollsters,
UMR, during the meeting, causing concern among members that the company was used for an
internal party dispute.

Ms Neal's poor performance in today's ballot was widely attributed to her criticisms
over the past two days of Mr Beazley and his weakness as leader.

But Ms Neal declared her support for Mr Beazley after she emerged from the meeting
to declare she would not be Labor's candidate.

"My support for Kim Beazley is undiminished," she told reporters.

Ms Moran was jubilant at the win, saying it was a tremendous result.

"I'm absolutely delighted, I'm looking forward to having a rest and getting on with
the job of winning Robertson for Labor," Ms Moran said.

Robertson is exactly the kind of seat Mr Beazley needs to win to become prime minister
at the next election.

Liberal Jim Lloyd won the seat in the anti-Labor sweep in 1996 and held it again at
the 1998 election. After a redistribution, the Liberals have a two per cent buffer over
Labor heading into the next poll.

AAP sal/jas/de t

KEYWORD: NEAL NIGHTLEAD

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