Seat of the week: Bendigo

The federal electorate of Bendigo has been trending to Labor since Steve Gibbons gained it for them in 1998, but it is reportedly back on the Liberals’ radar with his impending retirement.

Created at federation, the electorate of Bendigo currently extends from the city itself south to Castlemaine and the Macedon Ranges around Woodend, also taking in smaller rural centres to the west and north. The redistribution to take effect at the next election has added the Macedon Ranges area from McEwen in the electorate’s south-east, and transferred Maryborough and its surrounds to Wannon in the west. The changes respectively affect about 7000 and 10,000 voters but have only a negligible impact on the Labor margin, which goes from 9.5% to 9.4%.

Bendigo was first won by Labor in 1913, having earlier been in Protectionist and Liberal hands. Billy Hughes contested the seat as the Nationalist Prime Minister in the wake of the Labor split of 1917, having recognised he would be unable to retain his existing safe Labor seat of West Sydney, and succeeded in unseating Labor incumbent Alfred Hampson with a 12.5% swing. Hughes would remain member for five years before moving to North Sydney. Bendigo was in conservative hands thereafter until 1949, except when Richard Keane held it for a term after Labor came to office in 1929. George Rankin gained the seat for the Country Party when United Australia Party incumbent Eric Harrison retired in 1937.

Bendigo emerged with the curious of distinction of being gained by Labor when it lost office in 1949, and next lost by them when they finally returned to power in 1972. The win in 1949 resulted from the redistribution giving effect to the enlargement of parliament, which accommodated the state’s northern rural reaches in the new seat of Murray and transferred Castlemaine and Maryborough to Bendigo. John Bourchier won the seat for the Liberals against the trend of a substantial pro-Labor swing in Victoria in 1972, which was variously put down to the entry of a popular Country Party candidate and attacks on Labor member David Kennedy over state aid and his liberal position on abortion. Bourchier would in turn hold the seat until the Fraser government’s defeat in 1983.

Bendigo was then held for Labor by future Victorian Premier John Brumby, who served for three terms before joining Victorian Labor’s extensive casualty list at the 1990 election. Bruce Reid served for three terms as Liberal member until his retirement in 1998, when Labor’s Steve Gibbons, a former Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union official and electorate officer to Brumby, gained the seat with a swing of 4.4%. Gibbons came within 1.0% of defeat at the 2004 election before enjoying consecutive swings of 5.2% and 3.4% in 2007 and 2010. After announcing in September 2011 he would not seek another term, Gibbons became less disciplined in his public pronouncements, proclaiming on Twitter that Kevin Rudd was a “psychopath”, Tony Abbott a “douchebag”, Julie Bishop a “narcissistic bimbo”, and Australia Day an “Invasion Day” celebrated by “throwing bits of dead animals on a cooking fire just like the people we dispossessed”.

Labor’s new candidate is Lisa Chesters, a Kyneton-based official with the same Socialist Left union that once employed Gibbons, which has lately been rebadged as United Voice. Earlier speculation that the seat might be used to accommodate electorally endangered Senator David Feeney or even a return to federal politics for John Brumby was quickly scotched. Greg Westbrook, director of legal firm Petersen Westbrook Cameron, was an early nominee, but in the event Chesters was preselected without opposition. The Liberal candidate is Greg Bickley, owner of a local transport business. Other reported nominees for Liberal preselection were Jack Lyons, owner of construction business Lyons Constructions, and Peter Wiseman, a teacher and owner of a website design business.

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.

1,296 comments on “Seat of the week: Bendigo”

Comments Page 19 of 26
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  1. Rossmore. I saw Hall and Oates in concert last year, and Daryl mentioned his online show “at home with Daryl” during the concert. Went online and checked it out. Very,very good but only available online [as in streaming]. The cluey types are moving

  2. George Bludger ‏@GeorgeBludger

    LNP 2013 strategy: 1. Abbott in hiding 2. No policies other than leaked “discussions” 3. It’s about PM’s “judgement” 4. Abbott in hiding

  4. billie@900


    Fran Barlow I hope the Australian Electoral Commission fine you for interfering with the voting process. God forbid you incite your students to such pointless acts of civil disobedience, it would be more productive to spend their English class making up slogan to deface their ballot papers

    billie, maybe one of us should send Fran’s ‘confession’ to the AEC. 👿

  7. Zoomster:

    [One day, one of the private school boys picked up an apple, dipped it in the honeypot, and rolled it along the table, saying to me, “You get paid to clean that up.”

    At the time, I merely thought what a douche he was…..)]

    In that case you would be right. The action was malicious and an attempt to debase you. No densible purpose attached. Moreover, the service forced would not have been trivial. You could not have picked your moment to tidy it up. In practice it would take priority.

    That’s not what I did in the ballot box. Implicitly, I asked for a very minor service bound up with my attendance at the booth. Unlike your obnoxious patron, I had a defensible reason to act as I did. I bore the polling official no ill-will and expressed none.

    My question is — why shouldn’t the polling official simply note my act (possibly 15 seconds) and move on with his work (it was a young man)?

  8. fran

    how did the electoral official know which of the others had initialled your paper?

    If he had no way of knowing that, he had no way of determining which of the missng ballot papers yours was, and thus no way of avoiding the problems created by its absence.

  9. A day later and I return to see people still going on about the “stolen” ballot paper …

    I’ll repeat what I said yesterday … No. I can’t be bothered

  10. billie

    [ I hope the Australian Electoral Commission fine you for interfering with the voting process. ]

    Unlikely now, I have to say. It was about 6 years ago. I have heard nothing from them at all on the matter.

    I don’t preach in the classroom so no, I wouldn’t be suggesting what they should do at the ballot box. These are people’s children. I’m a professional. I observe professional distance. I stick to curriculum.

  11. Dark days for democracy. The status in parliament of both Joe Hockey and Gladys Berejiklian now hangs under a cloud.

    They must stand down until these issues surrounding the legitimacy of their election are resolved.

  13. Fran Barlow@911


    billie

    I hope the Australian Electoral Commission fine you for interfering with the voting process.


    Unlikely now, I have to say. It was about 6 years ago. I have heard nothing from them at all on the matter.

    I don’t preach in the classroom so no, I wouldn’t be suggesting what they should do at the ballot box. These are people’s children. I’m a professional. I observe professional distance. I stick to curriculum.

    Now you have made a public confession, the evidence is there for an open and shut case. 😀

  15. Space Kidette
    Posted Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 2:38 pm | Permalink

    Vomitous Abbott in WA launch.

    ————————————–

    Is he agreeing to an gst

  18. lizzie

    [
    fiztig: Abbott just said that the best Australians are West Australians. What a wanker]
    Abbott sure is. It’s Western Australians ! 😉

  20. Zoomster:

    [how did the electoral official know which of the others had initialled your paper?]

    Had he asked I’d have shown it to him. He didn’t ask so it can’t have been important. All he needs to note is that one will be short. If only one person is short one, mine would be the one.

    How do you think the polling official knew I was leaving with the ballot? I said “thanks a lot, goodbye” and I walked away from the table where I received it and directly to the door to leave. He knew what name he had crossed off. I deliberately did it this way because I wanted it to be explicit.

    He pursued me and sought the ballot. I firmly but politely said: “Sorry, but I’m going to go now” and looking him in the eye, stepped around him and left. He paused briefly and returned to the table. I imagine the whole thing was done in 15 seconds.

  29. cosmic jester ‏@cosmicjester Protected account
    International outrage as testing confirms Black Caviar contains horse meat

  31. Received 3 hours ago.
    [Dear bemused,

    I just heard the federal government has announced a very strong investment in Australian jobs. At the moment I work for a leading aerospace engineering provider which does high-tech manufacturing.

    But local manufacturing jobs like mine have been under threat from a high Australian dollar and overseas companies unfairly dumping cheap goods into Australia which hurts sales of locally made goods.

    We’ve been crying out for something to be done, and today the Labor Government has delivered. Today’s announcement will mean that we can take action when cheap overseas products are dumped here.

    Can you click here and share this Facebook post so your friends and family know how Labor is giving manufacturing workers like me a fair go? And if you’re not on Facebook you can share this email with three people?

    You don’t need to be an aerospace engineer to know that this announcement will help Australian businesses grow and create the jobs of the future.

    Today’s announcement means we’ll see more investment in innovative manufacturing so Australian manufacturing can lead the world. We won’t always be able to be cheaper, but we can definitely make smarter and better products than what’s available from overseas.

    Thanks for your support,

    Marcus

    PS. Only Labor will ensure Australian manufacturing has a future. Can you chip in $10 or $20 to help Labor win, and back Aussie jobs? http://campaigniq.communityengine.com/ch/26848/2dn21bc/1485086/72d90m0yt.html ]

  32. Peter Fox ‏@Peter_Fox59

    Geoffrey Robertson, “Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger have emerged in several US court cases, always protective of rapist priests.”

  34. confessions@869


    Joe Hockey thinks Abbott doesn ‘t need to do ‘hard’ interviews for as long as he continues to walk through shopping malls and connect with people.

    He also thought that Abbott didn’t have to study when he was at Uni, as long he continued to walk through campus and connect with walls.

    Someone ought to tell Hockey not to roll the hammock out yet. Just because he got a couple of bands around his stomach and bought a new suit, it doesn’t mean he can stop talking about the economy. There’ll be plenty of time for him to not talk about the economy if he gets to be Treasurer.

  35. From the geek on twitter

    Mr Abbott you said West Australians are the best Australians, did you mean they are #Authentic Australians as opposed to #Urban? #auspol

  36. Psephos

    I know you worked for the infamous Senator Feeney but your account of when Gillard decided to challenge is JUST NOT RIGHT.

    I recall seeing her on the ABC the night before the vote, leaving the office, saying she would challenge Rudd the next morning.

    Also, cut out the crap for awhile, and just face facts: you will doubtless recall, and would have been appalled at it, Gillard’s 4C performance, when she had it dragged out of her that, YES, she had prepared an acceptance speech TWO WEEKS before the knifing.

    I appreciate you are a know-all, but on these basic facts you are just so wrong.

    And, while I’m at it, you still haven’t explained what the connection is between the HSU, Kathy Jackson, and your former employer.

  38. MTBWbackat@848

    No quite sure which Rudd messages you and Feeney have been listening to but many of Rudd’s speeches are long, boring and hyperbolic to say the least.

    I listened incredulously to his victory speech in 2007.

    A total windbag.

    However, it must be admitted that the PM does not have one of the most listenable voices on earth either though her delivery is 100% better than it was.

    Then again compared with that stuttering noddy, Abbott, both Rudd and Gillard leave him for dead.

    One thing Rudd is good at, is the cut-through one or two liners. However, this is not enough it itself.

    I am not a particular Rudd fan or Gillard fan. I just want Abbott kept out.

    I don’t care who does it as this divider and destroyer, apart from being a total embarrassment for over half the electorate, will sell out Australia to vested interests mainly living in the Big End of town.

    The blatant remoulding of the Abbott image by the Murdoch press, long predicted here, is well under way, and it is vomit-making just to watch it.

    That fact that a poll of 800 women – yep, 800 women, is immediately and unashamedly extrapolated to “Women in Oz now love Tony Abbott” say it all.

    The fact that the few r/w hacks who come here actually pick up and run with this is both testament to their gullibility and desperation.

  39. [The Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has addressed the WA Liberal Party’s campaign rally, telling the crowd he hopes to model himself on the Premier Colin Barnett.

    Mr Abbott says Mr Barnett’s win at the last state election gave Liberals across the country hope.

    He described WA as the powerhouse of the nation and says every Australian owes a debt to the state.

    Mr Abbott also made light of the Prime Minister’s absence from the Labor Party’s campaign, saying he was pleased to be the only federal leader welcome in WA.]

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-17/abbott-launch/4523814?section=wa

    He always has to have a snipe at his opponents. He simply cannot do gracious and cannot do magnanimous. For these reasons (among many others) he will never be anything like Barnett.

  40. ‏on twitter

    “Tony Abbott: West Australians are the best Australians.” << ABBOTT HATES QUEENSLANDERS AND VICTORIANS!!!!! #Auspol

  41. Australia’s tax dollars at work:

    [@qanda Despite all economic indicators looking healthy, the Treasurer seems incapable of selling even good news]

    Isn’t diversity great? 😉

  42. [I recall seeing her on the ABC the night before the vote, leaving the office, saying she would challenge Rudd the next morning.]

    Yes, that was the Wednesday night, before the Caucus meeting on the Thursday. I’m talking about the Wednesday morning. That’s when she was persuaded to stand.

    [Also, cut out the crap for awhile, and just face facts: you will doubtless recall, and would have been appalled at it, Gillard’s 4C performance, when she had it dragged out of her that, YES, she had prepared an acceptance speech TWO WEEKS before the knifing.]

    That is not what she said.

  43. Is this right? Has Abbott been roped in to help out the Libs in WA? Are they that desperate? Most Lib/Nats running campaigns won’t let him anywhere near them.

  47. Psephos

    Well, what did she say?

    Also, any chance of a response re David Feeney, Kathy Jackson, the HSU, and the use of his office by her for union election purposes?

  48. I believe there was a massive swing to the ALP in the NT by-election. It hasn’t been widely reported, strangely.

    My question is this. How can it be??????

    The political commentators told me in no uncertain terms that the Prime Minister’s ‘captain’s pick’ was a disastrous decision and would lead to a huge drop in the ALP vote in the NT.

    I’m confused, but it hasn’t shaken my faith in the media experts (scratches head)…..

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