Graham Richard Ihlein (born 11 November 1951) is an Australian politician. He was a Labor Party member of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the states and territories of Australia, state lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the state upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament H ...

from 1982 until 1985, representing the electorate of

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places Australia * Sandringham, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney * Sandringham, Queensland, a rural locality * Sandringham, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station * ...

. Ihlein was born in the

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

suburb of Lakemba, and attended Yagoona State School. His family later moved to Victoria, where he attended Morwell High School and studied law at Monash University. He worked as a research officer (1974–1975) and senior industrial officer (1975–1979) for the Australian Public Service Association, and was a federal industrial officer for the Australian Telecommunications Employees Association from 1979 until 1982. Ihlein had joined the Labor Party in 1975, had been the Sandringham campaign manager in 1979, and was a member of the party's economic policy committee from 1981 to 1982. Ihlein was elected to the Legislative Assembly at the 1982 state election, winning the formerly safe Liberal seat of

. Sandringham had been held by the Liberal Party since its inception, and while the seat had become considerably more marginal since a 1976 redistribution, the incumbent Liberal MLA,

Max Crellin Maxwell Leslie Crellin (16 July 1933 – 5 May 2020) was an Australian politician. He was born in Preston to butcher Leslie Francis Crellin and dressmaker Myrtle Louisa Agnew. He attended school at Belgrave, Chatham and Camberwell before ...

, had held off Labor challenges in 1976 and 1979. Ihlein campaigned for eighteen months prior to the election, and focused heavily on retaining the

Sandringham railway line The Sandringham line is a commuter railway line in the city of Melbourne, Australia. Operated by Metro Trains Melbourne, it is the city's fourth shortest metropolitan railway line at . The line runs from Flinders Street station in central Melb ...

, which had been threatened with closure under a report made for the previous government. The campaign proved to be successful, with Ihlein winning a narrow victory as the Cain Labor government won office statewide. A redistribution prior to the 1985 election made Sandringham notionally Liberal again. Ihlein instead contested and lost Evelyn to Liberal Jim Plowman, while Ihlein staffer and future federal MP Ann Corcoran contested and lost Sandringham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ihlein, Graham 1961 births Australian Labor Party members of the Parliament of Victoria Living people Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly Monash University alumni