Girrawheen

Margin: Labor 2.7%
Region: North Metropolitan
Federal: Cowan

RESULTS AT 2013 ELECTION
HISTORICAL TWO-PARTY RESULTS
PREVIOUS ELECTION RESULTS MAP

Candidates in ballot paper order

MARGARET QUIRK Labor (top) SAHAJ SINGH Micro Business Party MUSHFIQ SHAH Greens (bottom) DAVID PHILLIPS Australian Christians CHE TAM NGUYEN Family First RAYMOND ROACH Shooters Fishers and Farmers DAME KRCOSKI Liberal (centre)

Held by Labor since its creation in 1996, Girrawheen covers northern Perth suburbs immediately east of the Mitchell Freeway, from Girrawheen itself to the industrial area at Landsdale. It was preceded by the electorate of Marangaroo, which in turn was created in place of Balga in 1989 (although that suburb is now in the electorate of Mirrabooka). The latest redistribution has left it all but undisturbed, after the previous two proved substantially detrimental to Labor, moving the electorate away from lower income areas in the east and south and into the newer developments of Madeley, Darch and Landsdale. These changes account for 12.5% out of a reduction in the Labor margin from 23.3% to 2.4% since 2005.

The inaugural member for Girrawheen was Ted Cunningham, who succeeded Brian Burke in Balga in 1988, then held Balcatta from 1989 to 1996. Cunningham's retirement in 2001 initiated a fateful split in the Right as he and his allies succeeded in placing National Crime Authority lawyer Margaret Quirk in Girrawheen, along with John D'Orazio in Ballajura. The friction this caused with the Brian Burke faction of the Right culminated with Transport Workers Union secretary Jim McGiveron physically assaulting the 61-year-old Cunningham, breaking two of his teeth.

Quirk won promotion to parliamentary secretary in June 2003, but nonetheless faced a preselection challenge ahead of the 2005 election from Jon Kelly, the Burke-aligned mayor of Wanneroo. This sparked a factional brawl that was resolved through national executive intervention to guarantee preselection for all sitting members, conducted at the behest of Geoff Gallop. Kelly then ran as an independent and polled 15.4%, and would later withdraw as Labor's candidate for Cowan before the 2010 election after a Corruption and Crime Commission report criticised his interactions with Burke as mayor.

Quirk attained cabinet rank after the 2005 election as Disability Services Minister, and was further promoted to Justice Minister in May 2006. In opposition she took on the police, emergency services and road safety portfolios, but lost police after lining up against Mark McGowan during his successful move on Eric Ripper's leadership in January 2012. She was one of five Right faction MPs identified as being initially supportive of the plan to draft Stephen Smith to the leadership in March 2016, before falling in behind McGowan as the plan fell apart.

A new threat to Quirk's preselection appeared in late 2015 in the shape of Right faction colleague Stephen Price, state secretary of the Australian Workers Union. This was scotched by the intervention of powerbrokers including then Senator Joe Bullock, who listed the move against Quirk as one of the grievances causing him to part company with the Right. Price will instead contest the election in the Liberal-held marginal of Forrestfield.