Nedlands

Margin: Liberal 19.0%
Region: North Metropolitan
Federal: Curtin

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

Candidates in ballot paper order

CHRISTOPHER SHAW Australian Christians PENNY TAYLOR Labor (centre) KEITH GINBEY Micro Business Party ANDREW MANGANO Julie Matheson for WA DANIEL GROSSO Greens (bottom) BILL MARMION Liberal (top)

Nedlands covers well-heeled areas west of the city, including riverside Dalkeith and Crawley (home to the University of Western Australia campus and the Royal Perth Yacht Club), along with Shenton Park and Subiaco to the north. It has not been significantly affected by the latest redistribution. Conservatives of one stripe or another have held the seat since its creation in 1930, including Charles Court from 1953 to 1982 and Richard Court from then until 2001. The closest the seat ever came to going to the left was in the by-election held when Richard Court resigned in the wake of the 2001 election defeat, at which the Greens came within 3.4% of victory.

The seat was held for the next two terms by Sue Walker, a former crown prosecutor who promptly rose to the position of Shadow Attorney-General. Walker quit the front bench and then the party in early 2008, apparently due to her displeasure with Troy Buswell's elevation to the leadership. She was unsuccessful in her bid to retain the seat as an independent at election the following September, at which Liberal candidate Bill Marmion outpolled her by 45.5% to 22.8%, before preferences narrowed the gap to 2.5% at the final count.

Bill Marmion entered cabinet in the commerce, housing and works and science and innovation portfolios in April 2010, and was further promoted to environment and water the following December. After the 2013 election he was reassigned to mines and petroleum and housing, and further took on finance when Dean Nalder was obliged to relinquish it in December 2014. He rose further up the cabinet pecking order in March 2016, keeping finance but trading his other portfolios for state development. When Nalder quit cabinet ahead of the leadership spill motion in September 2016, Marmion took on his transport portfolio and relinquished finance.