Sam Benson for Batman and Australia': labor pre-selection problems, the ethnic vote and the ghost of Benson AllenLyle 2017 The 1995 battle for Batman has held the public's attention for some months. Two local candidates for ALP pre-selection have been disappointed and, thanks to support by Canberra-based members of the Party, an outsider - Martin Ferguson - has won. This struggle can be seen as an odd echo from the 1960s when the ALP Victorian Central Executive twice intervened in pre-selections in Batman. Ethnicity was an issue then as now, but the context was very different. Copyright. Monash University and the author/s