30-04-2025
Star Liberal candidate ‘forgot' he was once a member of the ALP
Liberal Party star Indigenous candidate Benson Saulo has already been accused of party-hopping after it emerged he had once been a member of the Greens.
Now, Australian Labor Party records seen by CBD show he was also once a member of the ALP. Well, we've all shopped around, haven't we?
Saulo is contesting the seat of Macnamara based around the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda against sitting Labor MP Josh Burns and Greens candidate and NGO consultant Sonya Semmens. Anyone could emerge the winner, depending on which candidate falls into third place in this three-cornered contest and the flow of preferences.
Benson, a finance executive and diplomat, became Australia's first Indigenous person to be appointed a consul-general when he took up the post in Houston in 2021.
A member of the Wemba Wemba and Gunditjmara family groups in Victoria and the New Ireland province on Papua New Guinea, Saulo was the first Indigenous person to attend the United Nations General Assembly as an Australian youth delegate. He also once joined Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo in Cleo magazine's '30 Aussies under 30 who are totally killing it at life' list. An impressive resume, to be sure.
Last month, Saulo faced accusations of party-hopping after confessing he was a member of the Greens in 2015, had briefly worked for former leader Richard di Natale, and had also sought preselection.
And he stands accused of being a former ALP man as well, although he initially denied to CBD ever being a member of Labor.
'In 2014, some friends and I dreamed up the idea of a youth-focused political party called Emerge – but it never got off the ground, and our small group was later absorbed by Australian Progressives,' Saulo said in a statement.
