Tony Zappia

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Tony Zappia was the Australian Labor Party candidate for the electoral division of Makin in north-eastern Adelaide, South Australia in the 2004 election. He is a former Australian national powerlifting champion and has been Mayor of the City of Salisbury since 1997.

[edit] 2004 Makin preselection

Zappia faced a tough fight in the ALP preselection for the seat from Dana Wortley, a former secretary of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance and a member of the Left faction of the South Australian Labor Party formerly led by Peter Duncan. Traditionally, preselection for Makin was given to the candidate from the Duncan Left. Zappia is factionally non-aligned but is considered by virtually all independent analysts to be the most suitable person for the position. When it appeared that the factions in the Labor Party were going to prevent Zappia from winning preselection, his close friend and state member for Florey as well as member of the Duncan Left, Frances Bedford, decided to also stand for preselection in Makin. She was expected to attract more of the votes given to the Duncan Left candidate than Wortley and would probably win preselection. Bedford would subsequently have a very good chance of winning the election. This created a serious problem however. Her resignation from State Parliament would have necessitated a by-election in her marginal seat of Florey. Considering the current Rann Government's precarious hold on power, this could have given government at State level to the Liberal Party. The factions then decided to back down and Zappia was endorsed almost unanimously.

This created a second problem. Labor's equal opportunity rules stipulate that 40% of the winnable seats at any election must have women preselected and the candidature of Wortley for Makin was, in part, driven by an attempt to reach this level. It now appeared that a male candidate in another winnable seat had to be replaced by a woman. Fingers were pointed at Labor Senators Nick Bolkus and Geoff Buckland. Rather than facing a tough preselection battle with an unnamed woman and each other, both men decided to retire and ceded their preselection to Anne McEwen and Annette Hurley respectively.

Zappia will once again stand as the Labor candidate for Makin at the 2007 federal election. [1]