Seat of the week: Melbourne Ports

Labor’s century-long hold on this inner southern Melbourne seat has never really looked threatened, despite being transformed by gentrification over the past few decades.

NOTE: Poll Bludger will be closed for comments for two weeks from December 25 to January 7 inclusive.

Melbourne Ports covers Bayside inner Melbourne from the mouth of the Yarra through Port Melbourne and Albert Park to St Kilda, further jutting inland in the south to take in Elsternwick. The redistribution to take effect at the next election will transfer 9000 voters in Elsternick and Caulfield South south of Glen Huntly Road to Goldstein, increasing the Labor margin from 7.6% to 7.9%. Melbourne Ports has the largest Jewish community of any electorate in Australia, accounting for 12.8% of the local population, and ranks at or near the top for numbers of Poles, Russians and Hungarians. It also has the second lowest proportion of Christians after its northern neighbour, Melbourne.

Labor’s greatest source of strength in the electorate is around St Kilda, where booths results in 2010 typically had Labor in the high thirties, the Greens on or around 30%, and the Liberals in third place in the mid-twenties. At the city end of the electorate, encompassing Port Melbourne, South Melbourne and Albert Park, green-left inner-city tendencies are counterbalanced by wealthy Liberal-voting elements. The strongest areas for the Liberals are in the east of the electorate, both around South Yarra in the north and Caulfield in the south, where the suburbs begin to take on the character of the electorate’s safe Liberal neighbour, Higgins.

Melbourne Ports was once noted for its preponderance of waterfront workers and generally working class voter base, and was accordingly very safe for Labor for most of its history. It has since transformed into the tenth wealthiest electorate in the country, a process which has considerably worn down Labor’s margin. The seat has nonetheless been extremely stable over the past two decades, recording essentially no swing at all at the consecutive elections of 1996, 1998 and 2001, a 2.0% swing to the Liberals in 2004, and swings to Labor of 3.4% in 2007 and 0.4% in 2010. The 2004 election proved Labor’s low water mark to date, the margin falling to 3.7%.

Labor has held the seat without interruption since 1906, with only five members serving over that time: James Matthews until 1931; Ted Holloway, a Curtin-Chifley government minister who moved to Melbourne Ports after unseating Prime Minister Stanley Bruce in Flinders two years earlier, until 1951; Frank Crean, Whitlam government Treasurer and father of Simon, until 1977; Clyde Holding, who came to the seat after a long and unproductive spell as state Opposition Leader, until 1998; and the incumbent, Michael Danby.

A member of the Right sub-faction associated with Stephen Conroy and Bill Shorten, Michael Danby’s pre-parliamentary career included stints as editor of the Australia-Israel Review, staffer to Hawke government minister Barry Cohen and industrial officer for the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association. He is frequently in the news as a supportive voice for Israel, most recently after the Prime Minister was prevailed upon to have Australia support observer status for the Palestinian territories at the United Nations. Although occasionally mentioned as a candidate for promotion, he is yet to achieve a position more senior than Opposition Whip, which he held between 2001 and 2007.

The preselected Liberal candidate for the second electorate running is Kevin Ekendahl, a manager at non-profit social enterprises organisation Try Australia.

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.

2,987 comments on “Seat of the week: Melbourne Ports”

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  1. [ShowsOn
    Posted Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 12:01 am | PERMALINK
    Remember that time Mod Lib said he was going but lied?]

    Did you miss me?

  2. confessions@2832


    But change that bloody moniker. It’s so utterly out of character for you…


    It’s a total pisstake on bemused’s hysterical and ridiculous remarks that PB is like North Korea. In that context I think it’s entirely appropriate, and hilarious.

    Besides, if PB really was North Korean and alienating, the sensible approach would be to ignore it, and simply comment elsewhere. Like Piers’ blog, where one’s anti Gillard, anti Labor comments would draw round applause and agreement. Kind of like that North Korean atmosphere bemused seems to want a little bit of for himself…

    your histrionics are most amusing.

  3. fiona:

    !!!! I might not have gotten the kim jung un thing from the outset, but once you explained I thought it most hilarious!!! 😆

  5. C@t,

    Tune into ABC FM CLassics NOW – the best ever Christmas Mass – I’ve sung it several times and it’s a joyous sing and a great listen.

  8. [A Very Merry Geek ‏@geeksrulz
    Preparing a $100 Leg of Lamb for Christmas lunch tomorrow. Gold leaf covered with gold leaf sauce. Calling the recipe: “The Joyce of Baa”. ]

    Remember those promised $100 legs of lamb?

    😆

  9. [So are we going to fight over who gets the last post of 2012 for another three hours?]

    That is the social convention, isn’t it? 😉

  11. Rossmore,

    It was a very deliberate pisstake of Bemused, who has been carrying on about North Korean thought – particularly with respect to the Tragics’ site.

    Nothing more, nothing less.

  13. Mod Lib,

    [ R we still live? ]

    Give yourself a good solid pinch & let us know the result!

    If it stays quiet, then we will know at least you aren’t!;-)

  17. According to Barnaby, the $100 Legs of Lamb are only the beginning! Once the dreaded ‘Carbon Tax’ bites Abbatoirs on the bum it’s going to cost ~$50000/head of cattle to slaughter!

    ‘Barnaby Joyce. Bringing the yuks to federal parliament.’ 😀

  19. Have a great Xmas Day, BB. And no onions, macadamia nuts, nutmeg, cooked bones, dried grape products, avocado or alcohol for the doggies. 🙂

  20. [particularly with respect to the Tragics’ site.]

    Yes, the Unhingement from bemused and fellow travellers about joe’s blog has been truly remarkable.

    What a shame gravatar is blocking people from using the Nth Korean flag as a gravatar. I was much looking forward to getting in on the pisstake.

  21. fiona@2861


    Rossmore,

    It was a very deliberate pisstake of Bemused, who has been carrying on about North Korean thought – particularly with respect to the Tragics’ site.

    Nothing more, nothing less.

    Rather funny that even people like Possum agreed.
    The lack of self awareness on this site is nothing short of amazing.
    Even funnier when those folks accuse others of the same.

  22. shows

    [Remember that time Mod Lib thought we missed her but she was lying and crying?]

    It was the Walrus. I told her not to do it and all those dogs as well.

  23. fiona,
    I don’t know where ABC Classic FM is! :

    I’m an unreconstructed Punk from way back. We don’t do melodious singing. We do melodious shouting! 😀

  24. Bushfire Bill,

    [ Merry Xmas to all. ]

    Still 52 minutes to go here in Dog’s own country, Qld but the same to everyone from me.

    Have a good one and be kind to each other during the coming year.

    With so many lurkers coming out of the woodwork tonight, we wouldn’t want to give them the idea that we are a mob of cretins, would we? 😉

  27. scorpio@2874


    Bushfire Bill,

    Merry Xmas to all.


    Still 52 minutes to go here in Dog’s own country, Qld but the same to everyone from me.

    Have a good one and be kind to each other during the coming year.

    With so many lurkers coming out of the woodwork tonight, we wouldn’t want to give them the idea that we are a mob of cretins, would we?

    I keep forgetting the PB Lounge has glass walls.

  28. [CTar1
    Posted Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 12:08 am | PERMALINK
    ModRib – Have you died yet? I can assist if needed.]

    That is not a nice way to start Xmas day CTar1

  29. [CTar1
    Posted Tuesday, December 25, 2012 at 12:08 am | PERMALINK
    ModRib – Have you died yet? I can assist if needed.]

    That is not a nice way to start Xmas day CTar1

  30. [Still, its a somehat childish gesture]

    Actually the childish gesture is to declare a blog in Australia to be Nth Korean in expression. Even more childish when you consider that some News ltd blogs actively censor out views which don’t accord with the views of the host.

    Of course bemused knows this, but can’t help a juvenile dig at commenters here because they don’t share his anti Labor, anti Gillard views. That’s the hilarity, Rossmore, and why bemused’s idiocies are fully ripe for mocking.

    Go fiona and her new gravatar!!

  33. [Give yourself a good solid pinch & let us know the result!]

    Last time I pinched myself I gave myself a slap across the face and one of my multiple personalities sued the other one.

    Thankfully, another of my multiple personalities is a Barrister….so I made an absolute MOTZA on the case 😀

  34. Ye well bemused’s , well bemused. He’s welcome at my campfire, even though he annoys the hell out of me. Broad church and tolerance and all those passé, old fashioned virtues … Etc

  35. C@tmomma,

    [I don’t know where ABC Classic FM is! :

    I’m an unreconstructed Punk from way back. We don’t do melodious singing. We do melodious shouting!]

    One of these days, and given your taste in music, I will be more than happy to lead you into even more mischief.

  36. C@tmomma@2873


    fiona,
    I don’t know where ABC Classic FM is! :

    I’m an unreconstructed Punk from way back. We don’t do melodious singing. We do melodious shouting!

    Yeah, who’s interested in the music of long dead Europeans?
    Give me Blues and Rock any day. 😀

  40. confessions@2880


    Still, its a somehat childish gesture


    Actually the childish gesture is to declare a blog in Australia to be Nth Korean in expression. Even more childish when you consider that some News ltd blogs actively censor out views which don’t accord with the views of the host.

    Of course bemused knows this, but can’t help a juvenile dig at commenters here because they don’t share his anti Labor, anti Gillard views. That’s the hilarity, Rossmore, and why bemused’s idiocies are fully ripe for mocking.

    Go fiona and her new gravatar!!

    Good ole obsessions busily engaged in proving every point I have ever made about her.

    Strip out the ad hominens and there just isn’t much left.

  42. Fess I don’t believe Bemused is anti Labor at all. Anti-Gillard yes, but the two ain’t the same, much as it pains me to say so. I believe he is badly mistaken in this view, but it ain’t a hanging of offence or grounds for banishment from the PB community.

  44. Rib – You are so RW nasty you have to post an insult twice.

    Fully over you. I will have the Walrus and dogs and scanties reprocessed in the early morning (and your mother and father).

    And have myself tested.

  45. Rossmore@2884


    Ye well bemused’s , well bemused. He’s welcome at my campfire, even though he annoys the hell out of me. Broad church and tolerance and all those passé, old fashioned virtues … Etc

    You must be very easily annoyed.
    What are the specific issues?

  47. Rossmore,

    [OK I wasn’t in on the in joke. Still, its a somehat childish gesture]

    It was, but so was the insistent play on North Korea.

    How is bullying best dealt with? Ignoring it? Or counter-attack?

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