Milk-gate, Billy’s run, Lyons for Geelong: Election faux pas of yesteryear
With the 2025 federal election campaign now a week old, we’ve revisited some of the more colourful campaign moments of yesteryear.
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Election campaigns can be tough.
Long days, sleepless nights, relentless pressure.
Even for the most experienced political operators, the hustings can be a fraught environment, where the smallest slip of the tongue can become a big deal.
With the 2025 federal election campaign now a week old (just four weeks to go), we’ve revisited some of the more colourful moments from polls past.
Brownless tackled
Rugby league great Mal Meninga is often credited for having the shortest political career in Australian history, giving up less than 30 seconds into an unforgettable ABC radio interview.
But a Cats legend’s political career was also shut down before it even started by an awkward media encounter.
In the late 1990s then-premier Jeff Kennett was understood to be interested in having Billy Brownless stand in the Victorian state election in the seat of Geelong North.
Following a coffee date with the higher ups of the Victorian Liberal Party, Brownless, alongside former Victorian politician and Coodabeen Champion Ian Cover, was bailed up by an awaiting media scrum.
“Look, I’ve gotta go away and have a good think about it, because, honestly, that’s what I’ll do now,” Brownless told the pack.
The first question – “What are the big issues in North Geelong?” – stumped a bemused looking Brownless.
“I haven’t got a great feel of it, and that’s what I’ve gotta look at,” he awkwardly replied.
Smelling blood, the media pack went down an unorthodox line of questioning.
“What’s your position on the independence of the auditor general?” one asked.
“Uh, Covey?” Brownless said, looking around for help.
“What about the separation of powers, do you endorse that at all?” was the next doozy.
“Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah,” Brownless said as he made his escape.
Needless to say, the clip has been replayed often.
Milk-gate and a corflute consignment kerfuffle
Five contenders for the seat of Corangamite descended upon the Belmont hotel on the eve of the 2016 federal election for what was meant to be a relatively uneventful photo opportunity.
But one candidate’s order certainly made for an interesting moo-ment.
Each hopeful was asked by our photographer to buy a drink for the photo, minutes after pre-polling closed, to toast the end of a lengthy campaign.
Most choices were uneventful – beer, wine, water, the usual – but it was then-incumbent Sarah Henderson whose drink of choice raised eyebrows.
Ms Henderson, who went on to win the seat, said she chose the beverage to show her “support for dairy farmers”.
But Animal Justice candidate Andy Meddick wasn’t udder-ly convinced.
According to a post by Mr Meddick on Facebook, Ms Henderson didn’t even take a sip.
“After the pre-polls closed, the Geelong Advertiser took all the candidates to the Belmont Hotel for a photo shoot,” Mr Meddick wrote on Facebook.
“We were asked to get ourselves a drink and hold it up.
“Sarah Henderson chose a glass of milk, presumably to show support for the dairy industry.
“No sooner had the camera been packed up, she shot out of there at speed, leaving the milk untouched, to be thrown out.”
Its not the political veteran’s only campaign whoopsie.
Earlier in the same campaign hundreds of her corflute signs were accidentally delivered to, of all places, a Geelong union office.
The Electrical Trades Union saw the funny side, asking their Twitter followers what they should do with their delivery.
Ms Henderson said at the time she also took the incident in good humour, with Coalition staffers picking up the misguided delivery shortly afterwards.
Asher Anzac ad anger
This one falls into the “what were they thinking” folder.
The 2022 Liberal Corangamite candidate and former Geelong mayor Stephanie Asher’s apparent brain fade during an Anzac Day event in Drysdale certainly did her campaign no favours.
Ms Asher came instantly under fire after her truck-mounted billboard drove past the service, with the act instantly being slammed as “disrespectful”.
Curlewis resident Brendan Tenson shared a video of the awkward incident, and gave the Addy the inside scoop at the time.
“We were at the cenotaph at 10.30am, and the van came up the main street heading towards Portarlington, you could see the driver visibly looked over and saw all of us,” Mr Tenson said. “Then did a U-ey and came back the other way and went even slower, then did another lap out.”
“The people close to me were shaking their heads. I thought it was distasteful for what we were doing.”
An unnamed spokesman for Ms Asher’s campaign later apologised for the “mistake”.
Ms Asher attended an Ocean Grove service on the same day, posting a video to Instagram of herself laying a wreath at the ceremony, with the words: “Busy march, inspiring music, heartfelt words, plenty to ponder”.
Plenty to ponder indeed.
Lyons’ colourful bid
Geelong’s ever flamboyant mayor Darryn Lyons made the bold call in 2018 to run for state parliament, just two years after his council was sensationally sacked.
He was hell bent on defeating Labor incumbent Christine Couzens, and in the shadow of the 2016 US election, claimed he was “Trump before Trump”.
The paparazzi king’s campaign was marred with controversy.
A man wearing a hi-vis vest was photographed removing Lyons’ campaign signs in Newtown, prompting a police investigation.
He also accused “thugs” of hammering screws into the tyres of his bright pink campaign bus.
On the other hand, Labor called out Lyons’ political ties to the Liberal Party, calling him a “fake independent with fake abs – but he is a real Liberal”.
Lyons was unsuccessful, despite garnering an impressive 43.77 per cent of the final two-candidate-preferred vote, and his flowing pink mohawk hasn’t been sighted in the political arena since.
Socialists’ Siketa sting
A long-time Geelong councillor was dragged into an ugly election stoush after well-known Bell Park butcher Tony Siketa was caught in a sting by a Socialist Alliance candidate.
The party set up a camera after a pair of posters had been defaced in the days prior.
When confronted with an image of himself defacing the poster, Mr Siketa said he would’ve allowed Ms Carr to put up a poster, if she had’ve just asked.
The poster was not on Mr Siketa’s butcher shop.
Two days after the footage was taken, fellow Hamlyn Heights candidate Eddy Kontelj posted a photo on social media posing alongside Mr Siketa to promote a “meet and greet” at Siketa Meats on September 28.
While Mr Kontelj hadn’t done anything wrong, he’d been brought into the strange and ugly situation.
It didn’t hurt his standing, however, as Mr Kontelj comfortably beat Ms Carr to be elected to City Hall.
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Originally published as Milk-gate, Billy’s run, Lyons for Geelong: Election faux pas of yesteryear
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