Seat of the week: Fremantle

There have been suggestions that the electorate of John Curtin might be lost to Labor at the next election as part of a statewide conservative sweep, although they have faded with Labor’s recent improvement in the polls.

The electorate of Fremantle covers Perth’s coastal southern suburbs from North Fremantle south to Henderson. It extends only a short distance eastwards along the southern bank of the Swan River to Bicton, Liberal-voting riverfront territory beyond being accommodated by Tangney, while going deep inland as far as Jandakot and Banjup further to the south. Liberal support is strongest along the riverfront, in the Jandakot/Banjup area, and in recently developed Port Coogee south of the city. The Greens polled between 25% and 30% in the Fremantle city booths in 2010, reflecting a strength of support that allowed Adele Carles to win the state seat for the party at a by-election in April 2009. However, their competitiveness in the federal seat is curtailed by the more traditionally working-class complexion of the suburbs further south.

The electorate of Fremantle has existed in name since federation, with the entirety of the Perth metropolitan area being divided between it and Perth until parliament was expanded in 1949. Only then did the port city and its surrounds sufficiently dominate the seat to allow Labor to secure its hold. John Curtin became the member in 1928 after unseating independent incumbent William Watson, who recovered it at the 1931 election as the candidate of the United Australia Party. Curtin was back for the long haul in 1934 and succeeded Jim Scullin as Labor leader the following year, although he survived in Fremantle by only 641 votes at the 1940 election.

After leading the country through the sharp end of the war years, Curtin became only the second prime minister to die in office in July 1945. Fremantle was retained for Labor at the ensuing by-election by Kim Beazley Senior and remained a home for high-profile Labor figures thereafter: Keating government Treasurer John Dawkins succeeded Beazley upon his retirement in 1977, and former Premier Carmen Lawrence in turn assumed the seat when Dawkins quit in 1994. Fremantle was the only WA seat left standing for Labor after the twin disasters of 1975 and 1977, but it was overtaken by Perth as Labor’s strongest seat in WA at the 2010 election, by which time the statewide tide to the Liberals had worn the margin in Fremantle down to 5.7%.

Fremantle has been held since Carmen Lawrence’s retirement in 2007 by Melissa Parke, a former United Nations human rights lawyer factionally aligned with the Left. Parke has thus far been overlooked for promotion, but made headlines over the past term after criticising the government’s “Malaysia solution” and decision to resume live cattle exports to Indonesia. As one report put it, Parke was “widely believed” to have voted for Kevin Rudd when he challenged for the leadership in February 2012.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

830 comments on “Seat of the week: Fremantle”

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  2. [I don’t think the existence of a wife and kids rules out the possibility that a man would sexually harass another man.]

    Indeed 😀 😀 😀

  5. As the NSW Government has announced that rail will be withdrawn from the centre of Newcastle I think that little trainspotter fetish is even further away.

  8. Slipper is an Anglo-catholic which is basically composed of either Catholics who want to masturbate and divorce or Anglicans who like playing dress-ups. Slipper may be a little of both.

  12. [Depends on how much dirt Ashby has on them, and he almost certainly has plenty to work with, more than enough to bring down one or two senior Libs.]

    Yeah, I get that bit, but if the abuse of process finding holds, the the substantive harassment aspects by definition haven’t been heard.

    What’s to stop Ashby starting out all over again? With a court case, maybe, but also maybe by going on TV and (small “d”) defaming Slipper with the same allegations that didn’t quite get thrown out (they were never heard).

    To stop him Slipper would have to sue for (capital “D”) Defamation. And it’d all start again.

    Ashby has the potential to be a real loose cannon if he wants to be.

  13. [506
    Psephos
    Posted Sunday, December 16, 2012 at 6:02 pm | Permalink

    I’ve downgraded it from prohibited to discouraged.

    And what about incomprehensible ramblings?]

    On a blog, that is an existential question.

  14. [Ashby has the potential to be a real loose cannon if he wants to be.]

    Given Mr Slipper’s position in the Anglo Catholic Church in Australia, one can only be thankful that young Mr Ashby is not a loose canon.

  15. [What’s to stop Ashby starting out all over again? With a court case, maybe, but also maybe by going on TV and (small “d”) defaming Slipper with the same allegations that didn’t quite get thrown out (they were never heard).]

    Just thought of the irony of that: Ashby goes on Today-Tonight to defame Slipper, so he can earn moolah to pay Slipper’s costs for an abuse of process action based on the same old evidence Ashby’s now using to defame Slipper.

    My head hurts, but can he do it? Would he?

  17. Joe6pack@472


    Until you develop a system that transports items be they people or freight, from point A to point B as efficiently as you can do by road I don’t think road is going away.
    People don.t like public transport if they have to change halfway into their journey and freight times would be expanded for the same reason.

    Joe, you should try the trains in Singapore. Changing from one line to another is a breeze and they are so frequent you don’t need a timetable. You can pretty much go from anywhere to anywhere with one interchange.

    On the parcel freight, a recent example.

    I ordered a computer from Sydney and it was picked up by a local courier who took it back to base where it was consolidated onto a truck going to Melbourne. In Melbourne it was taken off the interstate truck and put onto a local courier.

    Train could take the place of the interstate carrier in that example, but of course there would still be plenty of business for the local couriers.

    We just need appropriate infrastructure to facilitate such interchanges.

  18. [514
    fiona

    Ashby has the potential to be a real loose cannon if he wants to be.

    Given Mr Slipper’s position in the Anglo Catholic Church in Australia, one can only be thankful that young Mr Ashby is not a loose canon.]

    Is that like a dictum with wiggle room, fiona?

  19. If Slipper is an Anglo-Catholic, he hasn’t got to much to worry about in terms of church censure of homosexual activities. I used to know a few blokes in the Anglo-Catholic caper (priests and parishioners) and they were all as camp as Chloe.

  20. BB, surely [don’t call me shirley], any media that hosted Ashby is also open to litigation? He may become persona non gratis?

  22. Remember Ashby story on the 7.30 report back in July?

    [LEIGH SALES, PRESENTER: The sexual harassment case against the parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper has transfixed political watchers for much of this year. Little wonder, given the Gillard Government’s precarious state.

    But as the saga has unfolded, attention has switched from the Speaker to his accuser, staffer James Ashby.

    Last week we exposed the extent of political intrigue behind the case. Tonight, 7.30 can reveal that Mr Ashby is now under investigation himself over allegations of sexual relationships with 15-year-old boys. The Queensland police are examining the claims. ]

    http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3556822.htm

  23. Briefly,

    [Is that like a dictum with wiggle room, fiona?]

    My dear sir, I’m not sure that I want to think about that, let alone go there!

  24. bemused
    Joe, you should try the trains in Singapore.

    I have and they are great but comparing Singapore to Au. is just nonsense.

    [We just need appropriate infrastructure to facilitate such interchanges.]

    The cost would be prohibitive and all you will be doing is congesting cities up more with smaller trucks.
    True the big players have distribution centres that do as you say but the vast majority of freight is direct. Point A to B direct.
    You can’t do that using trains

  26. [Ashby goes on Today-Tonight to defame Slipper, so he can earn moolah to pay Slipper’s costs for an abuse of process action based on the same old evidence Ashby’s now using to defame Slipper.]

    *Sigh* It doesn’t matter now what Ashby says or does. Slipper has resigned as Speaker, which was the object of the exercise. Unless Ashby has clear proof of something so bad it would force Slipper to resign his seat (and the bar for that is pretty high, as Craig Thomson has demonstrated), no-one will be interested. If had such proof, he’d have produced it by now. Neither government nor opposition has any interest in this sordid story dragging on into next year. Ashby will now disappear back down whatever sewer he came out of. Slipper will serve out his term and retire. Chatosphere obsessives will continue to gibber and squeak, but politically this story is over.

  27. Pooroti

    As a latte sipping socialist I really must say I find your taste in music rather vulgar and somewhat juvenile.

    I’d quote some Wozzeck but I fear it would go over your head.

    Crushee Rosey if you can.

  28. Chatosphere obsessives will continue to gibber and squeak, but politically this story is over.

    It certainly has been shut down by the mainstream media.

  31. [523
    fiona

    Briefly,

    Is that like a dictum with wiggle room, fiona?

    My dear sir, I’m not sure that I want to think about that, let alone go there!]

    Fly with Apostasy – See The Underworld.

  32. Rosemour,

    [I’d quote some Wozzeck but I fear it would go over your head.]

    Poroti can speak for himself, but moi could be teddibly rude and opine that Berg is jejune, passé, and sooooooooo 20th century.

    Then again, moi might be pulling your leg. A bit.

    😉

  33. Transport wise you can’t compare Singapore to Australia

    Singapore is small – smaller area than Brisbane, Sydney or Melb metro areas

    Singapore doesn’t allow parking on the street, you park your car on your property or in a pay garage

    Singapore cars are allowed to drive when their licence plate says, week ends only plates are affordable for the middle class. You have to be seriously rich to afford the weekday plates. There is a dubious trade in Malaysian plates but you have to leave the island every night

    From memory the Singapore transit system works well

    Singapore taxis are cheaper than ours

  38. [Slipper has resigned as Speaker, which was the object of the exercise.]
    Not quite. Slipper was supposed to resign from his seat in disgrace leaving the way clear for Mal Brough to win a by-election. Labor did follow the plot by choosing one of their own as Speaker but that’s as far as it went. Slipper remained in the house as an independent which wasn’t the plan at all and even worse, he was mightily pissed off and chose to vote with the government. That hoped-for extra vote for the Coalition in the reps which Abbott and Co hoped could bring on a motion of no confidence and a change of government didn’t happen.

    Plot foiled, Labor still left with a barely there majority and still very much the government, Abbott left wondering why everyone won’t play by his rules.

  40. phespos. like Dtsuckey, Miss Melinda, getsaway w ith ‘stuff’. You and I just have to keep moving onn.

    William. You’re a good good thing.

  41. I thought someone would have posted this by now. Really, you lot are not keeping up at all.
    http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/politics/ashbygate-and-the-born-to-rule-brigade/
    [THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA are gloating about the fact the LNP and Ashby have “succeeded” in their evil little plot to discredit the ALP.

    They are gloating about the fact that, not only have they ruined a man’s career, they have also destroyed a man’s “character”.

    What a wonderful result that must seem — to have so successfully slandered and defamed another person? To have driven him and his family to the brink?

    This person, Peter Slipper, was a man the LNP themselves had endorsed in the Fisher electorate for decades. And he was a man to be ruined by someone who couldn’t have been a more trusted ally; who had pride of place at Slipper’s wedding — though he turned up 20 minutes late, delaying the service and leaving the bride in tears.]
    Now read the rest for yourselves.

  43. Thomson was also supposed to resign and lose his seat in a by election.

    One would be enough; two would have been a bonus.

    Regardless of the personal morality of the two men in question, Australia owes both of them a big vote of thanks for deciding to tough it out rather than take the easy way out – the way they were supposed to – and deliver an Abbott government.

  48. [538
    leone

    Not quite. Slipper was supposed to resign from his seat in disgrace leaving the way clear for Mal Brough to win a by-election. Labor did follow the plot by choosing one of their own as Speaker but that’s as far as it went. Slipper remained in the house as an independent which wasn’t the plan at all and even worse, he was mightily pissed off and chose to vote with the government. That hoped-for extra vote for the Coalition in the reps which Abbott and Co hoped could bring on a motion of no confidence and a change of government didn’t happen.]

    It was also about Abbott’s instinct for revenge – about gratifying a desire to punish betrayal. He is malice aforethought.

  50. victoria
    And it shows Abbott’s completely delusional state. He thought Thomson and Slipper would do what he wanted them to do just because he made some wild allegations. They believed they were innocent and chose to stand their ground. So not fair!!!

    Abbott just can’t undertand why anyone would not do what he wants. After all, his whole life people have done whatever he wanted – his parents, his sisters, his school, the Jesuit network, journalists, the Liberal Party. It must be tough having to learn at fifty-five years of age that the whole universe does not revolve around one and some people will say ‘Piss off Tony’. No wonder he looks sick, tired and aged.

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