The Sunday Times has turned in a handy poll showing Labor ahead in Geraldton and Mindarie but heading for a drubbing in Swan Hills, although a collective sample of 450 suggests the results should be treated with caution. Unusually the report provides two-party preferred figures without distribution of the undecided – had this been done the results would have looked a little something like this:
| ALP | LIB | UND | ALP | LIB | |||
| Geraldton | 49 | 41 | 9 | 54 | 46 | ||
| Mindarie | 44 | 37 | 18 | 54 | 46 | ||
| Swan Hills | 32 | 52 | 15 | 39 | 61 |
The results runs counter to the prevailing wisdom in that Labor are ahead in regional Geraldton and behind in suburban Swan Hills. Earlier reports suggested that the Liberals had been disappointed by recent polling in the latter electorate, while no less an authority than Paul Murray reckons psephologists should classify Geraldton as being held by an imaginary Liberal member and not by Labor’s all-too-real Shane Hill.
