Ken Aldred Politician

Kenneth James Aldred (born 1 August 1945) was an Australian politician who represented the Liberal Party in the Australian House of Representatives between 1975 and 1996.Aldred was elected to represent the Division of Henty in Victoria in the 1975 federal election and re-elected in 1977, before being defeated by his predecessor in Henty, Labor candidate Joan Child, in the 1980 federal election.After the resignation of Speaker of the House Billy Snedden following the Coalition's defeat in the 1983 federal election, Aldred successfully stood in the by-election for his seat in the Division of Bruce. He was re-elected in Bruce in the 1984 and 1987 federal elections. Following an electoral redistribution he was elected to represent the Division of Deakin in the 1990 and 1993 federal elections.Aldred was disendorsed by the Liberal Party for Deakin in 1995 for the 1996 Federal election. As a parting shot and with nothing to lose he used parliamentary privilege to make allegations of involvement in espionage and drug trafficking against a prominent Jewish lawyer and a senior foreign affairs official, using documents that were later found to be forged, which had been supplied to him by Lyndon LaRouche front organisation the Citizens Electoral Council. He also alleged that the Department of Foreign Affairs had 20 pedophiles in its senior ranks, and named one senior diplomat, who was charged and subsequently exonerated.Even though Aldred made those allegations after losing the Deakin preselection, it would be erroneously claimed in media reports in later years that the allegations was what contributed to his disendorsement.In 1999, Aldred presented further false documents to a newspaper alleging that John Howard, Paul Keating and Bob Hawke had taken money from Indonesia to bias foreign policy towards them.In 2007, controversy ensued when the local Liberal Party branch endorsed Aldred as their candidate for the marginal seat of Holt. However the Administrative Committee of the Liberal Party in Victoria voted unanimously to veto his endorsement. In March 2009, he nominated for the seat of Deakin again, but was once more unsuccessful.