By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
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?
Benson Saulo is the Liberal Party candidate for Macnamara.Credit: Simon Schluter
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.
“I left Australian Progressives in late 2014. Australian Progressives was not registered as a political party until 2015. I have never been a member of the ALP.”
Hmmm. But Labor Party records seen by CBD show one Benson Saulo sent an email to the ALP on June 24, 2015, at 2.25pm.
“I’d like to request that my membership with the ALP be cancelled. My membership number is 78190. This wasn’t an easy decision to make as there is much the ALP can be proud of in the way of policy and supporting our communities most vulnerable, but I have made the decision not to remain an ALP member,” the email reads.
After CBD had jogged Saulo’s memory, he said: “I’m shattered at having forgotten about a three-month period in 2014 in which I was an ALP member.
“I have talked extensively to the community and to the media about my short stint as a Greens member in 2015, so have no reason to hide the ALP membership I held fleetingly. Hand on heart, I simply forgot.”
Saulo said he walked away from the political left because they sold him a promise about values he discovered they did not adhere to.
We go way back
Ryan “Brickman” McNaught, star of LEGO Masters on Nine (owner of this masthead) is the only LEGO-certified professional in the southern hemisphere.
Ryan ‘The Brickman’ McNaught and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan go way back.Credit: AAPIMAGE
He’s been busy lately, helping to create the LEGO Star Wars exhibition at the Melbourne Museum, which held its media preview on Wednesday, an event deemed globally important enough that Jedi News travelled all the way from Britain to cover it. We kid you not.
Of course, Victoria being Victoria, the state government, represented by Premier Jacinta Allan and Major Events Minister Steve Dimopoulos, tipped in an undisclosed amount of funds to help snare the event. It’s set to deliver “a major economic boost for the state”, you see.
Anyway, while not quite in the realm of “Luke, I am your father”, The Brickman did make a personal revelation no one had foreseen – the premier was a high school student alongside him at Catholic College, Bendigo. Plot twist!
Allan told assembled hacks: “Now, I know a little bit about Ryan’s story, and we are on a unity ticket to not share any secrets with you of the time we spent at school together.”
This was immediately undermined by The Brickman, who talked about their year 11 politics class, run by Mr Ferris, where the “straight-A shining light of the class” was, well, guess who?
“So whilst I got in trouble in class for playing with LEGO, the future premier, of course, got nothing but pats on the back.”
Taking over the press conference, The Brickman said while his job was the envy of children everywhere, his 17-year-old son, Riley, envied someone else.
“You are the envy of my son, who wants to be the premier in Victoria,” he said, before asking a question on behalf of Riley: “What is the favourite part of your job?”
Allan’s entirely predictable response was that her favourite part of the job was talking to school kids (yawn). “Look forward to working with you one day,” she said.
Take the weight off your feet
Spotted: At Fresco Nails Foot & Spa on Puckle Street, Moonee Ponds, at 2pm on Tuesday, Richmond AFL star Toby Nankervis, getting what looked to us like a pedicure.
Good to see modern AFL self-care in action.
Albo’s Exotic endorsement
After Donald Trump’s embrace of various bro podcasters helped lock in the male edgelord vote and pave his return to the White House, it was no surprise that Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton would race to the mics ahead of Saturday’s poll.
‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic endorses Anthony Albanese during the 2025 federal election campaign.Credit: Joe Exotic / Instagram
But as the campaign reaches the home stretch, the prime minister isn’t just ahead in the polls, he’s also nudged ahead in the podcast/YouTuber stakes.
Albanese got the weirdest internet celebrity endorsement of the campaign on Wednesday from none other than Joseph Allen Maldonado, aka Joe Exotic, star of the pandemic-era Netflix documentary Tiger King, currently serving a 22-year prison sentence for animal abuse and the attempted murder-for-hire of rival zookeeper Carole Baskin, who told his Instagram followers to support the PM.
Rather than the work of some enterprising Labor apparatchik, the endorsement came courtesy of 2DayFM hosts Jimmy and Nath, who asked Exotic to back the PM during a radio interview this week.
A bit of social media love that Dutton probably didn’t envy.
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