City of Prahran Councillor • 1958–1973
Mayor • 1965/66 • 1970/71 Determined to fight for a seat on the
City of Prahran council to improve its service to the people of the area, George Gahan became the
Labor Party candidate for the South Yarra Ward in 1954. For fifteen years Cr. George Gahan represented
South Yarra on the
Prahran City council. Gahan was elected mayor of Prahran twice, in 1965 and 1970.
The Australian Labor Party split of 1955 had triggered events that caused a
state election in May that year. Neither the
anti-communist 'Barry Labor' or the
John Cain led
Labor Party ran candidates in
Toorak. Gahan came in second to the sitting
Liberal and Country Party member Horace Petty, and beat the
Victorian Liberal Party candidate Geoffrey Kiddle. From
Results of the Victorian state election, 1955 (Legislative Assembly L-Z) 1961 Labor Candidate for Prahran George Gahan was elected by the
Labor Party to be their candidate for the 1961
Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of Prahran. Prahran had been held by the
Liberal Party and Australian
Cricket champion and
Sam Loxton since 1955. On
May Day 1961 George Gahan declared:
"The hour is right for a dramatic rise of the Labor Party ready and willing to work for a new deal for workers". Cr. Gahan campaigned in Prahran against the conservative Victorian government of Sir Henry Bolte and their record on housing and unemployment. Despite winning the popular vote, George lost the election due to the
preferential voting method used in Victorian state elections. The
Liberal Party was aided by preferences from the
Democratic Labor Party (DLP), which had broken away from the
Labor Party during the 1950s claiming that the root organisation was too soft towards communism; fears of left-wing influence was causing great concern in Australian society at the time. After
DLP preferences were counted the Liberal Party's
Sam Loxton won with a reduced two party preferred vote of 52.71%. From
Results of the Victorian state election, 1961 (Legislative Assembly L-Z) Election Scandals As the
Cold War dragged on, the Australian Leftwing remained deeply divided and the
split within the Australian Labor Party continued to grow. Labor Party candidates were not only being challenged by the conservative
Liberal Party, but were facing a major challenge from their former comrades who had split and joined the increasingly powerful
Democratic Labor Party. This provided fertile ground for a boisterous and scandalous
1961 Victorian State election campaign. Several days before the 1961 Victorian election, the Victorian Premier
Henry Bolte gave an address at a Liberal Party election forum being held in the Prahran Town Hall on Chapel Street. Just before the meeting at Prahran Town Hall opened, a Labor party 'street meeting' was held near the town hall. As the Premier began to address and audience of 500 citizens gathered at Prahran Town Hall, the meeting descended into chaos and speakers' voices were drowned out by continuous heckling. As Premier Bolte attempted to deliver his speech over the noise of hecklers, the public address system and national radio broadcast broke down. The Premier later declared that the radio and speaker systems had been victim to sabotage. As scuffles and arguments broke out at the public gathering, four policemen intervened with one man being escorted from the Prahran Town Hall by police. The Premier
Henry Bolte declared it
a wicked attempt to keep him off the air pointing the finger directly at the
Labor Party of Prahran and suggesting that there were more Labor supporters at his meeting than had ever attended a meeting for the leader of the opposition Mr Stoneham. Sir Henry Bolte told the press:''Look at this rabbel, this is the Labor Party. They are here tonight to disrupt this meeting simply because they know that
Sam Loxton will win Prahran. They are a poor lot of losers. The people of Victoria wouldn't hand over to this spectacle we have here...This is the element which would ask you to let them govern the state. They are booing everything that is decent''.
Election Day Court Injunction In 1961, the common understanding of the abbreviation
L.C.P in Victoria was that of the
Liberal and County Parties. On the day of the Victorian state election in 1961
how-to-vote cards baring the words
Vote with the L.C.P and printed in the Liberal and Country Party colours of red, white and blue were distributed at polling booths in the seat of Prahran. However, instead of directing people to vote for the Liberal Country Parties' candidate
Sam Loxton, they directed people to vote for Cr. George Gahan. The card also bore the words: ''Authorised by E. M. Bennett, 415 Malvern Road, Prahran, President of Ladies' Campaign Panel of Ratepayers' Association''. Voters who were intending to vote for the Liberal and Country Parties' (L.C.P) candidate picked up the
Ladies Campaign Panel card and voted instead for Labor's George Gahan. After an hour and a quarter of voting a female voter at Prahran town hall made a complaint about the misleading
how-to-vote cards. In an unprecedented move in Victorian electoral history, Justice Adam issued a court injunction restraining Mrs Bennett from publishing the misleading how-to-vote cards and ordered police to stop anyone distributing them. The Liberal Country Parties' candidate Sam Loxton said the injunction was too late and that much of the damage would have already been done. Despite the
Ladies Campaign Panel being a part of the
"Prahran Ratepayers Association" of which George Gahan was the president, no link between the misleading how-to-vote cards and the Labor Party or George Gahan was ever proven. When asked about the incident all George Gahan said that it was only unfortunate that his name appeared first on the cards. ==Political descendants==