The electorate of Parramatta has existed without interruption since federation, shrinking over time from Sydney’s broad north-western outskirts into the immediate area of the town itself. It presently extends from the Parramatta town centre southwards to Granville, westwards to Wentworthville, northwards to Carlingford and eastwards to Rydalmere. This area is distinguished by a high level of ethnic diversity, being home to particularly large Chinese, Indian and Lebanese communities.
Parramatta was once a conservative stronghold, having only been won for Labor prior to 1977 with the election of Jim Scullin’s government in 1929. Notable members included Joseph Cook, who held the seat for its first 20 years and served as Liberal prime minister from June 1913 to September 1914; Sir Garfield Barwick, member from 1958 to 1964, who served as External Affairs Minister and Attorney-General in the Menzies government before going on to an immensely controversial tenure as Chief Justice of the High Court; and Philip Ruddock, who began his parliamentary career after winning the seat at a by-election in September 1973, adding 7.0% to what had been an extremely narrow margin in 1972.
The watershed in the seat’s history came with a redistribution in 1977 that effectively changed the existing seat’s name to Dundas, of which Philip Ruddock became the inaugural member, while creating a new seat of Parramatta that extended deep into Sydney’s Labor-voting west. The newly safe Labor seat was won by John Brown, the Hawke government Tourism Minister remembered for his dislike of koalas and inappropriate use of his ministerial desk. Brown resigned as minister in 1987 after admitting (which he would later retract) that he had misled parliament, and he was succeeded in Parramatta by Paul Elliott in 1990.
Redistributions in 1984 and 1993 returned the seat to the marginal column by pulling it back to the east, reducing the margin to 1.0% ahead of the 1993 election. Elliott was able to increase his margin on that occasion, but he was unseated by a 7.1% swing in 1996. Incoming Liberal member Ross Cameron held out against a relatively mild swing of 1.1% in 1998, and further survived a highly unfavourable redistribution that pushed the electorate southwards in 2001 by picking up a swing of 3.6%. Shortly before the 2004 election he felt compelled to tell Fairfax’s Good Weekend magazine that he had committed numerous infidelities throughout his married life, and he emerged from the election as one of only three Coalition members to have lost their seat.
Labor’s new member was Julie Owens, classically trained pianist, former chief executive of the Association of Independent Record Labels and member of the Left faction. Owens faced an early challenge when another substantial distribution ahead of the 2007 election pushed the seat back to the north, but she easily accounted for the notional Liberal margin of 0.8% with a 7.7% swing consistent with the western Sydney trend. The redistribution pendulum swung heavily the other way when the seat absorbed the northern half of its abolished southern neighbour Reid ahead of the 2010 election, boosting the margin to 9.5%. There were suggestions this might result in Owens contesting Greenway, which took over the western end of the old Parramatta around Pendle Hill and Kings Langley, with Parramatta going to Owens’ factional mentor, Reid MP Laurie Ferguson. However, Ferguson was instead accommodated in Werriwa and Owens stayed put, surviving a 5.5% swing that reduced her margin to 4.4%.
The Liberals have preselected Martin Zaiter, a 29-year-old partner in a local accountancy firm, who was chosen ahead of a field that included the unsuccessful candidate from 2010, engineer Charles Camenzuli. There has been ongoing speculation over the years that Ross Cameron might seek a return to politics, but invariably in relation to other seats.
Fiz:
If 35 years ago is too long ago to really matter to today, you have to wonder why Sheridan is so worked up to the extent he is.
I was at Sydney Uni the same time as Abbott – he was certainly calling himself DLP in 1975. I am not so sure what he called himself in the years following.
Confessions
Yes I don’t doubt it. Just to be clear though, I was studying in Brisbane, so the DLP were on a few campuses.
Frankly, my views of the young Labor and Liberal wannabes of the time were not any better (lying creeps; Mike Kaiser was at UQ then) that put me off politics for years. But the point is, they were there, and quite active. I had gone to a catholic school too, and I would say the DLP types were not even remotely representative of their peers.
spur212
Those against the super trawler only care that it is gone now. They are not interested in the politics. Trawler gone. Good
@chrismurphys: You weren’t there as Abbott punched wall @JoeHockey but was it deserved when he sent you unconscious with punch to your head? #auspol
My Say,
Oh ok, they were from the Christian Brothers. I knew you said they were from one of the Catholic schools.
spur212
Oh and re the council elections. I can bet my bottom dollar, that should BOF have announced those cuts before the elections, the results would have been somewhat different. Most people deal with politics on a very superficial level. Your thought process and that of Hartcher, is not the same as the average voter
Victoria
That’s not the point. The point is what lead to the decision.
Sorry my say it was Puff. I think the jesuits give an excellent education and are strong supporters of social justice. But one of the reasons for their foundation was to educate the Catholic elite during the counter-reformation. In Australia their schools are still directed towards the elite and unfortunately many of their graduates were at rugby practice when the social justice classes were on.
OC:
I knew I’d remembered someone saying they were at uni with Abbott.
Socrates:
The Young Labor/Liberals I’ve encountered have been juvenile prats. There wasn’t a huge political presence at the uni I went to which is why these reports of hotly contested student council elections is baffling to me. It sounds like a different world back then.
my say
[Did i read you do t have Sunday trading ]
We do now.
Oakshott
Could be so
I have noted over time the christan bros schools
Where. Inpoorer suburbs
but. Now as the suburbs take over, its a mixture.
Minister Burke and others had been working on the trawler decision for some time before it was determined by Cabinet.
If anyone thinks Cabinet quickly changed its mind on the Monday night because Rudd issued a statement on the Sunday is being very very sad.
Burke was the driving force behind the change not some statement from Rudd.
Get real please.
As well others gloating over the upcoming book by McKew may well be interested in the book being released today by Mr Button.
Have a read TLM.
The whole 2010 leadership issue is old news. Whatever is released by anyone now is irrelevant. The MSM and some sad posters here may think otherwise and play it up but the bottom line is Caucus knows what went on and have already made its decision on the issue.
Victoria
Thanks for making my point. It doesn’t matter what O’Farrell does, the alternative is unelectable (service cuts or no service cuts)
Favourite Sydney uni Abbott story.
Professor Eysenck who made his name by arguing that Black people are dumb (he didn’t actually say that but it is how it has been interpreted) was Invited to lecture at the university. There was great agitation and plans for demonstrations to stop the lecture. The SRC called a general meeting which was attended by hundreds. Eventually Abbott said “as Shakespear said ‘I may not agree with what you say but I defend to the death your right to say it'” Voice at the back: “that was Voltaire you d!c khead.”
O that’s
GOOD dan
It was a labor gov. Who bought it in here
The story is that Ms Gillard was no reluctant draftee to the Labor leadership in June 2010, but it’s obviously better to spend an entire day on here waxing lyrical about something which may or may not have occured in 1977. 🙂
A good illustration of why Poll Bludger a lot of the time is divorced from reality.
Wow lies statistics etc.
Meantime you can brag how dangerous living in Australia is.
[14 September 2012 Last updated at 23:37 GMT
Sweden’s rape rate under the spotlight
By Ruth Alexander
BBC News
The standard of paramedical care has an impact on murder rates
Continue reading the main story
In today’s Magazine
Piecing together the world’s biggest jigsaw
How often do plane stowaways fall from the sky?
Quiz of the week’s news
Five ways you never knew the UK changed fashion
The Julian Assange extradition case has put Sweden’s relatively high incidence of rape under the spotlight. But can such statistics be reliably compared from one country to another?
Which two countries are the kidnapping capitals of the world?
Australia and Canada.]
Oakshott
Have. A goodday
Chuckle. Chuckle
TLM still rambling like rummels.
Nothin new there.
For those that understand the workings of parliament better than I, is there a mechanism where the government could seriously embarrass Abbott by voting to allow him time to give a full explanation on the floor of the house regarding these allegations. The justification being that as opposition leader he asking the Australian people to make him Prime Minister and they deserve to know the truth. If he just stands up and says it didn’t happen – as he would – and then witnesses appear to say that he did, he could be accused of misleading parliament.
It would be very interesting to see how he would handle that kind of pressure. Not very well I suspect. He’s been very good at dishing it out to other people. Let’s see how he handles it himself.
[but it’s obviously better to spend an entire day on here waxing lyrical about something which may or may not have occured in 1977]
Which you would no doubt be doing if it suited your political agenda. Don’t be so smug.
Doyley:
The whole reason these people are releasing their books is to cash in on the current circumstances, esp that the people who were present at the time are still MPs and unable to give their own version.
If Labor had won with an outright majority of their own, and if Rudd had retired and jetted off to the UN, nobody would give two hoots about either McKew’s or Button’s accounts of events.
y Posted Saturday, September 15, 2012 at 9:50 am | Permalink
Minister Burke and others had been working on the trawler decision for some time before it was determined by Cabinet.Dooley posted.
Quite. So i noticed mr burke on the news quite a lot here recently
Other environmental things being also discussed.
Imstill. Thinking about. The lib who was worried about the tas. Tiger
Yup Books from pollies just have a dent on their side to get rid of + make some cash.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/gillards-speech-impediment-or-why-the-pm-is-looking-a-bit-silly-20120914-25xve.html
[…it is amazing that Gillard and her government are travelling so poorly. It is testament either to the ineptitude of the Prime Minister and her senior colleagues, or faulty tactics – or both.]
Might want to remove the shipload of motes from your own profession’s eye before so readily handing out blame to others for any political mess we are in.
[Thornleigh Labor Man
Posted Saturday, September 15, 2012 at 9:52 am | Permalink
The story is that Ms Gillard was no reluctant draftee to the Labor leadership in June 2010, but it’s obviously better to spend an entire day on here waxing lyrical about something which may or may not have occured in 1977.
A good illustration of why Poll Bludger a lot of the time is divorced from reality.]
Ok Evan. We get it. When it comes to sticking the knife into Abbott or sticking it into the Prime Minister you’ll choose the PM every time. And still you have the gall to call yourself a Labor man. Bullshit.
confessions,
Agree 100%.
I continue to tell myself not to get baited by some on here but at times I just get the sh**s with the moaning and the repetition of gloom and doom.
I would hate to be in a desperate situation with some of them especially if it needed a bit of back bone to get through. They would buckle straight away.
Anyway, I have given myself a good talking to and now will continue on my journey of ignoring the prats.
Have a great day.
OC:
It sounds like Abbott was a much-loathed and derided figure in his university days. If so, it’s amazing that more stories haven’t emerged from those times in recent years.
spur212
You are missing the point. Why did BOF wait until after the council elections to announce these very big education cuts. This is not pie in the sky stuff. These cuts are going to hurt education in NSW, and make it more expensive for those who pay fees already.
Thornleigh labor man
is worried Gillard and labor are so far on top and the coalition under Abbott look like goners, it is getting out of control
@AlboMP: Back in Sydney from Brisbane – Media Conference at 1015 at Qantas Terminal
Interesting that no one has commented on the Abbott political trajectory.
DLP in 1975 – this is to be expected for a Catholic boy. What is a phenomenon of the last 35 years is the move from the DLP into the Liberals and Nationals.
In 1954 anyone with Abbott’s background would have been in the ALP – on the right for sure but strongly there.
In 1956 in Victoria or Qld they would have been in the DLP but in NSW still in the ALP
By 1975 even in NSW Abbott is in the DLP.
Can anyone knowledgeable tell me when the DLP moved largely together into the conservative parties. Was it an outcome of 1975 dismissal?
It DOES matter because it would seem that th DLP and its progeny have a major influence now in BOTH Main parties.
Obviously the SDA and the friends like Feeney and co ideologically are very close to the old DLP right (not being offensive GG and Psephos, just stating a fact of which I assume you will be mildly proud), and the influence of the Catholic RW is as strong in the ALP as it ever was – stronger than in the post split days.
What is new is the dominance of very much the SAME ideology in the LNP. In Qld, Newman (though is wife), Nicholls, Joyce, Boswell all come from this ideology so that both the National and Liberal wings of the LNP are dominated by people whose parents and grandparents (Irish and Italian Catholic) would have been in the ALP.
Oakeshott Country@80,
Turncoat Joe Lyons left school at 9. Don’t know where he went to school in Tassie.
Billy Hughes was a Welsh Baptist(like the PM 🙂 ), and was schooled in the UK.
Chris Watson was schooled in New Zealand.
Andrew Fisher: Fisher’s education consisted of some primary schooling, some night schooling, and the reading of books in the library of the cooperative his father had helped to establish. At the age of 10 he began work in a coal mine.
James Scullin: Scullin was born in the small town of Trawalla in Western Victoria, the son of John Scullin, a railway worker, and Ann (née Logan), both of Irish Catholic descent from Derry.[2] He was educated at state primary schools and then worked as a grocer in Ballarat while studying at night school and privately in public libraries and honing his public speaking skills in local debating clubs.
Bob Hawke: Hawke was raised in Perth and attended Perth Modern School.
Kevin Rudd: As above. Mixed education between Marist Brothers & Nambour State High School.
John Curtin: Curtin attended school until the age of 14. He chose the name “Ambrose” as a Catholic confirmation name at around age 14; this was never part of his legal name. He left the Catholic faith as a young man, and also dropped the “Ambrose” from his name. So, probably educated at a Catholic School in Creswick, Victoria, where he grew up with his family. His father, a policemen, was a Catholic, of Irish descent.
Gough Whitlam: At age six, Gough began his education at Chatswood Church of England Girls School (early primary schooling at a girls’ school was not unusual for small boys at the time). After a year there, he attended Mowbray House School and Knox Grammar School, in the suburbs of Sydney.
Is Knox Grammar a Jesuit school? I don’t think so.
Joseph Benedict ‘Ben’ Chifley: He was educated at Roman Catholic schools in Bathurst.
So a maybe there.
And Julia Gillard: Attended Mitcham Demonstration School and Unley High School.
So, I think we can conclude that the link between the Jesuits and Labor Prime Ministers is tenuous and long ago at best. 🙂
Hat tip to Wikipedia.
Yes puff. Those days the fees where about 22 £ a year i found afew recepts
In my. Father in laws file
The only wage paid then was to the. office staff and the matron at the boarding school.
Talking of religious nutters polluting society.
(USA)
http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/09/05/congress-tried-to-pass-anti-women-bills-on-an-average-once-week
OC
In my experience, elitism in schools occurs because of the demographic of the school. For eg. A catholic or public school in a poor socio ecomonic area operates entirely differently from one in a high socio economic area. It has everything to do with economics. Plain and simple.
39
guytaur
[@TrubbellAtMill: At the very root of all the shit in the lives of ordinary Western people sits one man. Rupert Fucking Murdoch.]
Long argued that Murdoch is probably the most malignant influence on democratic governance and public policy over the last 40 years or so – a particularly critical time in human history, it has to be said. The scale of carnage he has wreaked is so vast it is difficult to comprehend, and it is starting to come home to roost, for all of us.
History is going to trash him, from the moment he dies, and he knows it.
@DTD/133
One party however – does not have Abbott.
[victoria
Posted Saturday, September 15, 2012 at 9:38 am | Permalink
spur212
Those against the super trawler only care that it is gone now. They are not interested in the politics. Trawler gone. Good]
Vic
I think you miss the point here. The people who wanted the trawler gone were and are very passionate about it. It is a red button with them and can be re-activated at any time. Like when the government reminds them at the next election that the Libs voted against the legislation and are therefore likely to repeal it if they win office. IMO it’s a carefully targetted scare campaign just waiting to happen.
rly life
rly life
[edit]
Lyons was born in Circular Head, at Stanley, Tasmania, the grandson of Irish immigrants. His father, Michael Lyons, was a successful farmer who afterwards engaged in a butchery and bakery business, but lost this on account of bad health, and subsequently was forced to work as a labourer. His mother did much to keep the family of eight children together, but Joseph had to leave school at nine to work as a messenger and printer’s devil. But with the assistance of two aunts, he was able to resume his education at the Philip Smith Teachers’ Training College, Hobart, and became a teacher.[1] He also became an active trade unionist and was an early member of the Australian Labor Party in Tasmania. [1][2]
State politics
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Lyons
[
[edit]
Lyons was born in Circular Head, at Stanley, Tasmania, the grandson of Irish immigrants. His father, Michael Lyons, was a successful farmer who afterwards engaged in a butchery and bakery business, but lost this on account of bad health, and subsequently was forced to work as a labourer. His mother did much to keep the family of eight children together, but Joseph had to leave school at nine to work as a messenger and printer’s devil. But with the assistance of two aunts, he was able to resume his education at the Philip Smith Teachers’ Training College, Hobart, and became a teacher.[1] He also became an active trade unionist and was an early member of the Australian Labor Party in Tasmania. [1][2]
State politics
rly life
[edit]
Lyons was born in Circular Head, at Stanley, Tasmania, the grandson of Irish immigrants. His father, Michael Lyons, was a successful farmer who afterwards engaged in a butchery and bakery business, but lost this on account of bad health, and subsequently was forced to work as a labourer. His mother did much to keep the family of eight children together, but Joseph had to leave school at nine to work as a messenger and printer’s devil. But with the assistance of two aunts, he was able to resume his education at the Philip Smith Teachers’ Training College, Hobart, and became a teacher.[1] He also became an active trade unionist and was an early member of the Australian Labor Party in Tasmania. [1][2]
State politics
[
[
Darn
Perhaps I did not make myself clear. Hartcher wrote that the govt reacted to populism. How dare they. I say that the govt may have taken a populist decision, and in this case, good.
[The DLP had no presence on campuses in the 70s.]
That Sheridan statement has to be THE lie of this Newspoll week.
The DLP was still represented in Fed Parliament (until Gair’s defection in 1974) and state parliament: in NSW, kevin Harrold was MLS 1973-6; in Qld, Les Diplock (unusually for a Grouper a protestant Mason), who was the last remaining QLP/DLP MLA after elections 63 & 66 – a huge drop from 25 MLAs in 1957 at the time of the Split – then from 1969 (no official DLP candidates) stood as an Indie untll his seat was abolished 1972. Despite DLP wipeouts at Federal & State levels, DLP Fed & state groups remained active (inc on campus) until 1978, although the NCC continued.
GenX and older GenYs may have gone through uni without noticing the Oz version of USA’s McCarthyism – and Oz’s were just as rabid, nasty and obsessed with “dobbing in” workmates, neighbours etc, but without the trials. GensDepression +war-babies & Boomers were not so lucky.
I can assure you ct momma that Chif did not go to a Jesuit school, if he had any secondary education, which is highly unlikely, it would have been at St stannies (now more famous for its paedophilia than its rugby and certainly more than its education) and it’s St Vincent de Paul Brothers.
55
my say
Agree with that. My father was Jesuit educated, and is regarded by all who know him as a very decent man.
What role his Jesuit schooling played in that I cannot say. But he certainly turned out well.
Cat
The Jesuits were always the RICH boys, so it is to be expected that these would be the first groups of Catholics to move into the Liberal party conservative arena.
There are NOT many Jesuit schools around – River view in Sydney (and Aloysius think), in Melbourne, Xaviers and Athelstone in SA.
It would be a fascinating study to see just where each of our politicians was educated
Seems that on the Lib side we have Abbott, Hockey, Joyce all Riverview boys – ie Rich AND Jesuit
OOps (1) until “after” … 1974; (2) NSW MLA
The eyes & I need a break.
Apologies
For double post
There
Was only one boarding school in tas, in his youth
That’s. Was only. ONEin the south, which it seems he did not attend
[My say you’re the one who said that some Labor leaders were educated by the Js. Can you name one?]
Bill Shorten went to Xavier.