Who says
only Labor has the preselection all-ins? The Kooyong and Corangamite
preselections aren’t until April 23, so it’s still way too early to call
either. Instead, let’s take a trip down memory lane with the Rolled Gold
Liberals List – a list of pollies from the party of the born to rule who found
their career plans aborted compiled with the kind assistance of the Crikey Army.

First,
some rumbles for the House of Reps (election year followed by details of contenders):


1974 Marshall Cooke MP defeated by John
Hodges in Petrie.

1975 Nigel Drury MP defeated by John More in
Ryan.

1983
Geoffrey Giles MP defeated by Neil Andrew in Wakefield.

1987
Peter Drummond MP defeated by Geoff Prosser in Forest.

1990 – A
vintage year. James Porter MP defeated by Ian McLachlan in Barker. Roger
Shipton MP defeated by Peter Costello in Higgins. Ian McPhee MP defeated by
David Kemp in Goldstein. Ken Aldred MP goes down to Julian Beale in Bruce. He
moves to Deakin, defeating Ian McPhee for the preselection there.

1993
Ian Wilson MP defeated by Chris Pyne in Sturt.

1996
Ken Aldred MP defeated by Phillip Barresi in Deakin.

1996 A
big year in the West. Paul Filing MP defeated by Paul Stevenage for Moore but wins as independent. Alan
Rocher MP is defeated by Ken Court for Curtin – but also stands as an independent
and wins.

1996
David Connolly MP defeated by Brendan Nelson in Bradfield.

1998
Stephen Mutch MP defeated by Bruce Baird in Cook.

2001
Andrew Thomson MP defeated by Peter King in Wentworth.

2004
Peter King MP defeated by Malcolm Turnbull.

Then, some spectacular Senate stoushes:


1946 Queensland Senator
Hattil Foll defeated by Annabelle Rankin for winnable position.

1982 Queensland Senator
Neville Bonner defeated by Senator Kathy Martin (later Kathy Sullivan MP) for
winnable position.

1987 South
Australian Senator Don Jessop defeated by former MHR Grant Chapman for winnable
position, goes independent and is defeated.

1998 Queensland Senator
David Macgibbon defeated by Brett Mason for winnable position.

1990 NSW Senator
Chris Puplick defeated by Senator Bronwyn Bishop for winnable position.

1998 Victorian
Senator Karen Synon defeated by Tsbien Tchen for winnable position.

And the
Corangamite preselection might be a little more interesting than people imagine. Let’s wait
and see. If you want some reading to fill in the time, have a look at Margaret Fitzherbert’s excellent piece on the boys’ club that is
major party preselection in The Age today.