Three stories about Labor branch stacking and nefarious use of...

Three stories about Labor branch stacking and nefarious use of electoral staff in today's Geelong Addy.
This below is one:

GEELONG has its history of being embroiled in ALP branch stacking allegations.

Deputy Opposition leader Richard Marles made his way into parliament under allegations of branch stacking in Corio.

Mr Marles has been accused of branch stacking but has rejected the allegations and has never been proven to have been involved.

In October 2007, sitting Corio MP Gavan O’Connor hit out at “rampant branch stacking” after then ACTU official Mr Marles was preselected.

“Revelations of rampant branch stacking, rorting of democratic process, illicit fundraising, money-laundering and grubby background political deals by Labor right-wing operatives ... have damaged the party’s image,” Mr O’Connor said in the Geelong Advertiser in 2007.

A source claims Mr Marles’s elevation was assisted by the mobilisation of Labor Party membership within the Turkish community with the help of Lara MP John Eren.

This week Mr Marles and Mr Eren, who did not respond directly to questions about the mobilisation, vehemently denied branch stacking.

In early 2006, ALP member and a former girlfriend of Mr Marles, Roxanne Bennett, released a statutory declaration accusing the MP of branch stacking

Ms Bennett claimed a $500-a-head 1999 Wool Exchange business dinner was used to raise cash for the “branchstacking fund”.