Seat of the week: Curtin

Despite bearing the name of one of Labor’s greatest heroes, and covering his old home turf of Cottesloe, the Perth seat of Curtin is blue in tooth and claw. Julie Bishop has held the seat since she unseated a conservative independent in 1998.

Blue and red numbers respectively indicate booths with two-party majorities for the Liberal and Labor parties. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

Julie Bishop’s seat of Curtin covers Perth’s most affluent and Liberal-friendly areas, from Mosman Park and Cottesloe north along the coast to the southern part of Scarborough, and along the northern shore of the Swan River through the prestige suburbs of Peppermint Grove and Dalkeith. An area of relative Labor strength is provided by the area immediately west of the city. The electorate was created with the expansion of parliament in 1949, prior to which the Perth metropolitan area had been divided in highly variable fashion between Perth and Fremantle, with each consistently accounting for some of the area of modern Curtin. Curtin was originally limited to Perth’s inner west, with Fremantle continuing to extend up the coast as far as City Beach, before acquiring its coastal orientation with the redistribution of 1955. Fremantle was thereafter concentrated more to the south of the river, although its present northern limit at the suburban boundary of North Fremantle and Mosman Park was not established until 1984.

Despite bearing the name of a Labor Party legend, Curtin has been a blue-ribbon Liberal seat since its creation, being held first by prime ministerial contender and future Governor-General Paul Hasluck, and then by Victor Garland, a minister in the McMahon and Fraser governments. Garland’s resignation in early 1981 led to a preselection brawl in which the then Premier, Sir Charles Court, marshaled forces behind Allan Rocher to thwart Fred Chaney’s ambition to move from the Senate to the House, which he would eventually realise when he became member for Pearce in 1990. Rocher was defeated for preselection ahead of the 1996 election by Ken Court, son of the aforementioned Charles and brother of Richard, who was then Premier. This greatly displeased the newly reinstalled federal Liberal leader, John Howard, who did little to assist Court’s election campaign or to dispel the conception that he owed his preselection to controversial party powerbroker Noel Crichton-Browne. Rocher was thus easily able to retain his seat as an independent on Labor preferences, while a similar story played out in the northern suburbs seat of Moore.

Curtin returned to the Liberal fold in 1998 when Rocher was defeated by a new Liberal candidate, Julie Bishop, who had previously been a managing partner at law firm Clayton Utz. Bishop’s early career progress within the Howard government was reckoned to have been constrained by her ties to Peter Costello, and in the wake of the Coalition’s 2001 state election defeat she signed on to an abortive scheme to move into state politics to succeed Richard Court as Liberal leader. She eventually won promotion to Ageing Minister in 2003, and attained cabinet rank as Education, Science and Training Minister in January 2006. Reflecting the continuing strong performance of the party’s Western Australian branch, she was elevated to the deputy leadership in the wake of the 2007 election defeat. Her success in maintaining that position under three leaders reportedly led internal critics to dub her “the cockroach”, although dissatisfaction with her performance as Shadow Treasurer caused her to be reassigned to foreign affairs in January 2009. She retained the portfolio throughout the remaining years in opposition, further serving in the shadow portfolio of trade after the 2010 election, and was confirmed as Foreign Minister with the election of the Abbott government in September 2013.

UPDATE: Channel Seven has reported the ReachTEL poll conducted on Thursday night found only 28% believe the government’s new policies to stop boat arrivals were working versus 49% who don’t, while 56% say the government should announce boat arrivals when they happen. Last night it was reported that 53% think the Prime Minister should deliver the explanation for spying activities demanded by Indonesia, while 34% say he shouldn’t; and that 38% support Australia’s bugging activities with 39% opposed. It appears Channel Seven are sitting on voting intention numbers.

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.

1,517 comments on “Seat of the week: Curtin”

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  7. @Sean/248

    Your forgetting that documents that have only partially revealed trying to blame Labor is just stupid.

    And it’s what got Abbott more into trouble.

    You idiot.

  8. ST

    I note that Bolt ignores that Snowden can just arrange for the Jakarta Post, Kompass and the Jakarta Globe to get the stuff.

    I wonder who Bolt would blame in that case? The editor of the Jakarta Post? Give me a break.

    Because, in Bolt’s World, it cannot possibly be the stupidity and arrogance of Abbott, Bishop and Morrison, can it?

  14. Sean

    Perhaps the Indonesian MPs should not bother going to Russia to meet with Edward Snowden fo ascertain more informafion. They should come and meet with the ABC

  20. [@latikambourke: PM Abbott says SBY is ‘one of the best friends’ Australia has ever had and expresses gratitude to the Indonesian President.]

    Yet again Abbott misreads the situation. While Abbott repeatedly “praises” SBY as a person, he ignores the fact that SBY is, as the Americans would say, a lame duck president nearing the end of his term and ineligible for re-election.

    After next year’s election Abbott will be facing a different president who may be very different to SBY. Maybe Abbott really is too stupid to be trying to cultivate those people in Indonesia who have the greatest chance of becoming president.

  21. Sean

    Considering these events occurred in 2009 Tone should have been able to handle these events more assertively and proactively.

    Blaming the media was never an excuse for Gillard and it will never be an excuse for Tone

  23. Sean

    Further to the previous post the overwhelming majority of Liberal and ALP voters are not members of the party that they regularly vote for.

  24. Spider

    [Thanks for the advice re Melatonin, I will look into it.]

    You can get it from a GP in a 2mg slow release tablet.

    It’s available over the internet as it’s pretty harmless but I’d try your GP first.

  25. [She is not our head of state.]

    Of course she isn’t and neither is Queenie.

    Our PM has effectively been head of state for many decades.

  26. In Bolt and Murdochracy world, it was okay to print the private text messages of the speaker of the House, before the speaker was even served with the Writ. Cos that was in the national interest. You know it makes sense

  30. z

    [How stupid that idiot can get.]

    Bolt is adamant that the ABC should be stripped of the Australia Network as they don’t act in Australia’s (ie his) interests.

  31. Dio

    [It’s available over the internet as it’s pretty harmless but I’d try your GP first.]

    Good advice and exactly what I was thinking about the conversation earlier – See your GP for first go and then back again later for advice before going ‘E-bay’.

    bemused seems to have followed this track and even more sensibly has learned to minimise the amount needed.

  32. How soft is our leader!! First he lets us get caned by Indonesia while he whimpers in the corner and then he lets our GG disparage our institutions. 👿

    [Prime Minister Tony Abbott says ‘‘it’s more than appropriate’’ for the governor-general to publicly support gay marriage and a push for Australia to become a republic.]

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/bryces-remarks-more-than-appropriate-pm-20131122-2y1kx.html#ixzz2lQpi7Dwc

  34. [to be charged under the Official Secrets Act.]

    Bolt will be calling for the ‘D’ Notice system to be put back in place if this goes on much longer.

  35. vic

    [Bolt is simply doing the bidding of his master who is not even an Australian citizen]

    Absolutely. He’s as transparent as a pane of glass. He’s got this bee in his bonnet about the ABC destroying private (ie Murdoch’s) businesses.

  37. [The Cricket commentary has almost turned me off for the season already.]

    Ch9 had Slater and Lee in t-shirts and jeans interviewing some guy in a suit about the morning’s play. Now they have KFC buckets on their heads. It’s as if the work experience kids are filling in while the adults are having lunch. Just pathetic.

  39. It took a bit of time for Abbott’s letter to SBY to get the green light. First it had to go to Cabinet and then finally through Peta Credlin.

  40. ‘fess – Sitting on bar-stools on the grass no less!

    The Turkey in the suit bobbing up and down every time it was his turn to say something stupid …. faaark.

    It’s going to be a long, long summer.

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