In 1995, a student running for election in the SRC was caught in possession of a university mail bag containing postal votes belonging to hundreds of students at one of the University's residential colleges. That student and his team-mates were challenged about the matter and withdrew their candidacy. Nonetheless, no formal proceedings were ever taken against them. In a similar incident in the US recently, a student was jailed for 12 months for rigging an SRC election. One of the La Trobe students, the one who was observed in possession of the bag of votes, Stephen Donnelly, has recently become the Assistant State Secretary of the Australian Labor Party in Victoria. Among his duties there, he is director of the party's re-election campaign for the 2013 federal election. Given the recent scandals involving the Labor party and their choice of officials and candidates there is significant public interest in ensuring that the truth about these matters is revealed and justice is fully pursued.  The matter also brings La Trobe University and all other alumni into disrepute.

The exact circumstances of this matter are documented clearly in the report of Karsten Haley, the Deputy Returning Officer from the La Trobe election.