Seat of the week: Gorton

Labor front-bencher Brendan O’Connor is securely ensconced in what remains Labor’s sixth safest seat, despite a 7.5% swing to the Liberals at last year’s election.

Red numbers indicate size of two-party majority for Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

Gorton is located at Melbourne’s strongly Labor-voting western edge, covering the rapidly growing fringe suburbs of Derrimut and Deer Park in the south, Caroline Springs and Kings Park in the centre and Hillside in the north, and from there extending westwards through semi-rural areas to the satellite town of Melton. The latter area was gained with the redistribution that took effect at the 2013 election, adding 32,000 voters who had previously been in Lalor. This was counterbalanced at the city end through transfers of 33,000 voters at Sydenham, Keilor and Taylors Lakes to Calwell in the north, 9000 west of the rail line in St Albans to Maribyrnong in the centre, and 13,000 in Ardeer and Sunshine West to Gellibrand in the south. This boosted the ample Labor margin of 22.2% to 23.6%, which was then cut at the election by a 7.5% swing to the Liberals.

The electorate was created at the previous redistribution ahead of the 2004 election in place of abolished Burke, which furnished it with 12,000 voters around Sydenham and also included Melton and areas beyond the city to the north. This area was covered by Corio prior to pre-war urbanisation and the expansion of parliament in 1949, after which it was accommodated by shifting aggregations of Lalor (created in 1949), Burke (1969) and Calwell (1984). With the exception of one defeat in Lalor at the Liberals’ statewide high water mark in 1966, each of these three seats has been won by Labor at every election since their creation. Gorton’s inaugural member was Brendan O’Connor, who had entered parliament as member for Burke in 2001. His exchange of the predominantly rural outskirts seats of Burke for one anchored in outer suburban Melbourne was a welcome development, boosting his margin from 5.5% to 20.2%.

O’Connor rose through Labor ranks as an official with the Australian Services Union with factional backing from the Ferguson Left, which is now more likely to be identified under its formal name of the Independent Left. He was promoted to shadow parliamentary secretary when Kevin Rudd became leader in December 2006 and then to the junior ministry after the 2007 election victory, serving first in employment participation, then in home affairs in June 2009. Justice was added to his workload after the 2010 election, and in December 2011 he was shifted to human services. O’Connor stood by factional colleague Julia Gillard during Rudd’s leadership challenges in February 2012 and June 2013, and won promotion to cabinet as Small Business Minister on the former occasion. Further promotion to the troublesome immigration portfolio followed in February 2013, and he did well to be moved to employment after Rudd assumed the leadership the following June. Since the September 2013 election defeat he has served in shadow cabinet in the employment and workplace relations portfolios.

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.

1,728 comments on “Seat of the week: Gorton”

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  3. Poroti

    Thank you for your Utube, they do pop up everywhere don’t they, ie highland games et. Left Croatia now am in Greece and showed some peple the UTube you sent me if the bagpipes in Greece Loved it I Think???

  4. Not one scintilla of a smile from the Poodle in QT during Abbott reply to Leadership change( 7.30 replay )…. he knows where there’s smoke …..

  5. Not one scintilla of a smile from the Poodle in QT during Abbott reply to Leadership change( 7.30 replay )…. he knows where there’s smoke …..

  6. Bolt, Abbott and Turnball behaving like little children squabbling over a toy…Adults in charge I don’t think so…

  9. [Anyone sensing an Abbott v Turnbull v Hockey question in Newspoll?]

    Given the state of the current polling for the govt we are well overdue for one.

  10. [Anyone sensing an Abbott v Turnbull v Hockey question in Newspoll?]

    Given the state of the current polling we are well overdue for one.

  11. lefty e

    From the Perth Now link another sighting of “embattled”

    [Satirical US news program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver today aired a segment ruthlessly collating our embattled PM’s most embarrassing moments.]

  12. Given the media coverage of Libspill Leadershit the commissioning newspapers must ask for the leadership Q to be asked, except…

    Only Newspoll remains as a Newspaper commissioned poll. If they don’t ask the question ask why.

  16. [Satirical US news program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver today aired a segment ruthlessly collating our embattled PM’s most embarrassing moments.]

    Yet he didn’t manage to squeeze them all in. Abbott saying he’d do anything but sell his arse to be PM, admitting he lies in public, being ‘a bit of a grog monster’ , the precious gift of virginity, abortion as cheap contraception, leaving coal in the ground as the worst thing that could happen to the country, the climate in the time of Jesus, the inability to weigh CO2 …

    Where does one draw the line?

  18. bwahaha

    Retweeted by sortius
    Tony Martin ‏@mrtonymartin 7m

    According to Andrew Bolt, this photo is more evidence that Malcolm Turnbull is gearing up for a challenge: pic.twitter.com/xRhvgdJaZh

  21. Fair dinkum, what a nancy boy Andrew Bolt is. A drama queen among drama queens.

    All Turnbull needed to do was take his medicine from Bolt and it would have been alright.

    But he didn’t. He… (I can hardly say it)… chose to reply to a Bolt Directive.

  23. [It would be a tragedy if our Prime Minister stood on an old landmine in Normandy.]

    Then they would have to wrap up what was left of him, put it in a chaff bag and dump it out to sea. A noble D-Day gesture, surely?

  27. BB
    God forbid that he will, but standing on a mine might be the first (and last) useful thing Tony ever did as he will have saved the life of someone else who might have stood on it.

  28. AJ

    [Fran, if they ran every example of Abbott’s idiocy, the segment would have taken most of the day.]

    Well yes, but that was rather the point. They were spoilt for choice.

  31. sprocket

    If I have viewed a pdf document and then go to PB the font changes. A refresh and the font change disappears. Sounds similar.

  33. If Abbott died an early death, the hagiographers would crank up. We wouldn’t be allowed to say a word against him, and the Liberals could burst into tears and quiver their lips every time his government was questioned.

  36. [Peter Brent @mumbletwits · 1h
    My guess: Fairfax doesn’t want to keep paying (relatively) big $ for traditional phone polling. Robopolls cheaper. #Nielsen]

  41. [If Abbott died an early death, the hagiographers would crank up. We wouldn’t be allowed to say a word against him, and the Liberals could burst into tears and quiver their lips every time his government was questioned.]

    And just imagine if anyone noted on the occasion of his passing that there had been “a lot wrong” with his government.

  42. As much as I cannot stand the guy, discussing the physical demise of the PM is right down in the gutter with the similar discussion re Julia Gillard …. and just above everything that Bolt writes or says.

  43. [And just imagine if anyone noted on the occasion of his passing that there had been “a lot wrong” with his government.]

    Or even that his father had died of shame… even though he wasn’t dead!

  44. [As much as I cannot stand the guy, discussing the physical demise of the PM is right down in the gutter with the similar discussion re Julia Gillard …. and just above everything that Bolt writes or says.]

    Welcome to the gutter. Another infrastructure project from The Infrastructure Prime Minister.

  45. zoomster:

    F*ckers could pitch the mother of all ever-loving fits for all I care. I want to hagiograph or whatever about Abbott’s govt, then no Liberal boxhead will prevent me from doing so.

    Sorry if that offends some, but just throwing that out there in light of the conversation.

  47. And, in another clear sign that Rad Hadley was right, and that things” would just get better after the election of Tony Abbott….

    [Myer has responded to a drop in consumer spending by postponing its annual mid-year clearance while unveiling a one-day stock-take sale this week to entice shoppers into stores.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/myer-postpones-midyear-clearance-amid-warm-weather-and-low-consumer-confidence-20140602-39ea2.html#ixzz33Tco2PWH ]

    …and of course, Climate Science is crap.

    In fact, ALL science is crap.

  48. From the “diversity of views” thing I wonder if Fairfax will be looking for some kind of multi-mode – say robopoll/online.

  49. [I’ll pay that one, BB. It was quick.]

    I am on fire, but am trying to douse the flames with red wine.

  50. Just as a matter of interest… who’s up for dipping the toe in the icy waters and actually BUYING a Fairfax rag tomorrow?

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