Seat of the week: Wakefield

Seat of the week visits South Australia one last time to cover Wakefield on the northern fringe of Adelaide, held for Labor since 2007 by Nick Champion.

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

Wakefield extends from outer northern Adelaide to rural territory as far as Clare 100 kilometres to the north, with overwhelming Labor strength around Elizabeth and Salisbury partly balanced by support for the Liberals in the Clare Valley. It has existed in name since South Australia was first divided into electorates in 1903, but its complexion changed dramatically when its southern neighbour Bonython was abolished when the state’s representation was reduced from 12 seats to 11 in 2004. Previously a conservative rural and outskirts seat encompassing the Murray Valley and Yorke Peninsula, it came to absorb the outer suburban industrial centre of Elizabeth while retaining the satellite town of Gawler, the Clare Valley wine-growing district, and the Gulf St Vincent coast from Two Wells north to Port Wakefield.

Prior to 2004, Wakefield was won by the major conservative party of the day at every election except 1938 and 1943, when it was won by Labor, and 1928, when it was won by the Country Party. The Liberal member from 1983 to 2004 was Neil Andrew, who spent the last six years of his parliamentary career serving as Speaker. Andrew at first considered challenging Patrick Secker for preselection in Barker after the 2004 redistribution turned Wakefield’s 14.7% margin into a notional Labor margin of 1.5%, but instead opted to retire. Wakefield was nonetheless retained for the Liberals at the ensuing election by David Fawcett, who picked up a 2.2% swing off a subdued Labor vote around Elizabeth to unseat Martyn Evans, who had held Bonython for Labor since 1994. Fawcett’s slender margin was demolished by a 7.3% swing in 2007, but he would return to parliament as a Senator after the 2010 election.

Wakefield has since been held for Labor by Nick Champion, a former state party president, Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association official and staffer for state Industrial Relations Minister Michael Wright. The SDA link identifies him with the potentate of the South Australian Right, outgoing Senator Don Farrell. He nonetheless went against Farrell by coming out in support of Kevin Rudd in the days before his unsuccessful February 2012 leadership challenge, resigning as caucus secretary to do so. As with Labor’s other South Australian newcomers from the 2007 election, Champion had no trouble retaining his seat at the 2010 election, a 5.4% swing boosting his margin to 12.0%. However, the seat has since returned to the marginal zone following a redistribution in which it traded an area around Salisbury for Lydoch and Williamstown east of Gawler, reducing the margin to 10.3%, and a 7.1% swing to the Liberals at the 2013 election, which has left it at 3.4%.

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.

2,933 comments on “Seat of the week: Wakefield”

Comments Page 53 of 59
1 … 52 53 54 … 59

  1. [Ummmh.

    Tony?]

    I very much doubt that Abbott is running the Libs, he got rolled on his only policy today and has to eat the shit sandwich Joe et al fed him.

  5. There we go, Tom.
    Worth reading the whole article.

    Ms Lambie says “enough is enough”.

    First Para.

    Tasmanian Palmer United Party (PUP) senator-elect and former soldier Jacqui Lambie is worried the Department of Veterans Affairs is covering up hundreds of cases of suicides among serving soldiers and veterans.

    Last Para.

    “If they can’t do the job, as of July 1, I will be part of holding that balance of power, and I can tell you now, those politicians up there, they’re going to stop living off the Anzac legend and start living up to it,” she said.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-26/calls-for-more-action-in-dealing-with-soldier-suicides/5412638

  7. [confessions
    Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 6:23 pm | Permalink

    #Essential Poll Prince William becoming King of Australia in the future: Approve 54 Disapprove 26 #auspol

    Nobody wants Charlie.]

    The royal family are democracy thieves. You do not get to vote on your preferred king.

  11. Taxes will always be higher under a Liberal Govt.

    [Stephen Koukoulas ‏@TheKouk Apr 29
    An aside: There have been 7 yrs in budget history where the tax to GDP ratio has been over 23.5%. All 7 were during Coalition govts]

  12. From Coalition hypocrisy? Abbott and Hockey in their own words

    Then-opposition leader Tony Abbott, February 10, 2011, in a speech to Parliament on Labor’s temporary levy after the Queensland floods:

    “Why should the Australian people be hit with a levy to meet expenses which a competent, adult, prudent government should be able to cover from the ordinary revenues of government? … The one thing [people] will never have to suffer under a Coalition government is an unnecessary new tax, a tax that could easily be replaced by savings found from the budget.”

    Unless the money can’t easily be found from the budget. If the budget deficit is primarily due to a lack of revenue after overgenerous tax cuts rather than excessive spending and waste then the logical thing to do would be to increase taxes.

    If the budget is facing long term structural problems then the logical thing to do would be to address the revenue side where the problem lays.

    The problem for the Coalition is that they lied about this issue before the election and are now facing the consequences.

  14. [victoria
    Posted Wednesday, April 30, 2014 at 6:30 pm | PERMALINK
    Has Hockey popped his head from the parapet?]

    Ch7 news had video of Hockey and a lady at a table in the PH garden. No interview and without sound. Hockey looked a bit worried. He’s obviously letting Abbott talk himself into oblivion.

    This was part of the now normal unflattering depiction of Abbott. He was in a factory (Geelong?) in fluoro vest and safety goggles but this stunt had none of his pre-election bravado. Why he was there was not explained.

  15. cw

    [“If they can’t do the job, as of July 1, I will be part of holding that balance of power, and I can tell you now, those politicians up there, they’re going to stop living off the Anzac legend and start living up to it,” she said.]

    What on earth does living ‘up’ to the ANZAC legend mean?

    Are we going to kill tens of thousands of turks on behalf of the British Empire?

    Are we going to hand over responsibility for our soldiers to some foreign power?

    Are we going to invite British incompetents to run our armed forces?

    Are we going to kill lots of our soldiers with diseases, poor food and poor equipment?

    Are going to indulge in a new round of ill-informed nationalistic jingoistic militaristic mythmaking?

    Please explain.

  20. Just got phone polled by Galaxy:
    1. federal voting intention (list: ALP, Lib, Nat, Green, PUP, other)
    2. deficit tax proposal: would that be a broken promise (yes/no)
    3. $6 medicare co-payment (support/oppose)
    4. paid parental leave (support/oppose)

  22. [This was part of the now normal unflattering depiction of Abbott. He was in a factory (Geelong?) in fluoro vest and safety goggles but this stunt had none of his pre-election bravado. Why he was there was not explained.]

    Karen Middleton on SBS mentioned that the change to the PPL was agreed a few days ago yet she offered no explanation as to why Abbott was still defending the $75K amount right up until yesterday. She obviously swallowed the Lib BS hook, line and sinker.

  23. briefly

    Oh, well why didn’t she say so?

    My advice to Lambie is that the very best way to look after Diggers is not to keep sending them to stupid wars that we keep losing.

    That said, we have around 30,000 ex Diggers on disability pensions and it would be good to see Ms Lambie throwing her noise behind the NDIS.

    Instead of bullshitting about a historical fiction.

  25. Mark “The Dickhead” Simkin just now on ABC TV News:

    [“The Prime Minister wanted to show he’s sacrificing something as well.”]

    What a tool this ABC lackey is.

    The look on Simkin’s face was eloquent: total embarrassment and utter cringe.

    You can picture him just beofr he went to air:

    [“You mean you want me to say THIS shit?”]

  27. [2623
    Boerwar

    briefly

    Oh, well why didn’t she say so?]

    She’s obviously got one good rhetorical line and was making the most of it.

  28. [Allowing priests and brothers to marry would solve a lot of the problems of the Catholic Church, an abused former Christian Brothers’ resident told a royal commission in Perth this morning.]

    What would be more effective in curbing sexual abuse of children by priests etc is for the church heirarchy and leadership to grow a pair and implement a total zero tolerance approach to such appalling conduct and back up their words by referring such allegations to criminal investigation.

  29. [2624
    gloryconsequence

    Sky News reporting Abbott PPL backdown nothing to do with debt, but to do with possible party room revolt.]

    Hopefully the Senate will throw it out.

  31. [Sky News reporting Abbott PPL backdown nothing to do with debt, but to do with possible party room revolt.]

    Of course it’s partyroom tension. It has been since Abbott announced the ‘policy’ without consultation with his colleagues.

  32. [2628
    confessions

    Allowing priests and brothers to marry would solve a lot of the problems of the Catholic Church, an abused former Christian Brothers’ resident told a royal commission in Perth this morning.

    What would be more effective in curbing sexual abuse of children by priests etc is for the church heirarchy and leadership to grow a pair and implement a total zero tolerance approach to such appalling conduct and back up their words by referring such allegations to criminal investigation.]

    The whole clerical gig is weird. These blokes in their frocks….just very peculiar.

  33. BB –

    [ You can picture him just before he went to air:

    “You mean you want me to say THIS shit?” ]

    He probably wrote it, same as his usual nonsense.

  34. Yaaaay . Found out the story behind the name the IKEA faction. According to PvO’s prog it derives from “You bring it together when you need to get something done”.

  36. [Just got phone polled by Galaxy:]

    I’d expect results of polling on a Tuesday/WEDNESDAY and/or Thursday to be published on the Saturday. That should start up the brass band leading into the rapidly approaching budget week (yn)

  37. briefly

    Which is why I class Tones and Toolman as weird. They both heard voices in their head that said god wanted them to never have sex and dress up in frocks.

  40. poroti and confessions, at some level their curiosity in the clergy must have something to do with a need for approval and an attraction to authority and to the secret or the hidden; perhaps it also reflects a need to assert male primacy, though a celibate life is a very strange way to express that. I just do not understand any of this cultism. It is the closest thing to medieval we still have going round.

  43. [implement a total zero tolerance approach to such appalling conduct and back up their words by referring such allegations to criminal investigation.]

    I am guessing that there is no part of this that you find difficult or complex?

  45. What we could really do to help is to turn the bosses, who presided over mass child rapes and assorted brutality on a global scale, into saints.

  46. I assume Galaxy will be in the Weekend Murdoch tabloids, with juicy bits on Sunday, before Newspoll.

    Then everything is back in sync for the Budget, Nielsen of course does its own thing.

  48. This is, I believe, the very first time that Abbott’s first impulses – to bull through or to double up – have failed him.

    Backpeddle Abbott.

Comments Page 53 of 59
1 … 52 53 54 … 59

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *