Created with the expansion of parliament in 1984, Goldstein covers coastal southern Melbourne starting from Brighton, located about 10 kilometres from the city centre, and proceeding southwards through Hampton, Sandringham and Black Rock to Beamaris. The northern part of the electorate extends inland beyond the Nepean Highway to accommodate Caulfield South, Bentleigh and surrounding suburbs. The more inland areas are naturally marginal, but the affluence of the coastal suburbs has kept the seat in Liberal hands by stable margins ranging from 5.5% in 1993 to a new high of 11.0% in 2013.
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| Blue and red numbers respectively indicate size of two-party majorities for Liberal and Labor. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
The area now covered by Goldstein was accommodated by the electorate of Balaclava in the years immediately after federation, and then by the new seat of Henty when Balaclava was pushed northwards by a redistribution in 1913. Brighton was put back into Balaclava after 1937, and the new seat of Higinbotham covered the remainder after parliament was expanded in 1949. When Higinbotham was abolished in 1969, the area was divided between Balaclava, Henty and the new seats of Hotham and Isaacs. Beaumaris and Black Rock remained in Isaacs after Goldstein was created in 1984, at which time the new electorate extended northwards to St Kilda East. It assumed a more familiar form when it absorbed Beaumaris in the redistribution of 1996, which greatly reduced the Liberals’ competitiveness in Isaacs.
The various electorates which dominated the modern area of Goldstein were at all times in conservative hands, with the partial exception of Labor’s win in Isaacs at the 1974 election. Don Chipp held Higinbotham for the Liberals from 1960 to 1969, at which time he moved to the new seat of Hotham. Balaclava and then Goldstein were held from 1974 to 1990 by Ian Macphee, who emerged as the figurehead of the party’s moderates. Macphee was ultimately defeated for preselection ahead of the 1990 election by David Kemp, an intellectual leader of the party’s rising neo-liberal tendency, an event that provided a catalyst for Andrew Peacock’s successful challenge to John Howard’s leadership in May 1989. Kemp went on to serve in the Howard cabinet from October 1997 until his retirement at the 2004 election, as Education Minister until 2001 and Environment Minister thereafter.
Goldstein has since been held by Andrew Robb, a former Liberal Party federal director who had long been spoken of as a potential candidate for safe seats in New South Wales, where he had lived for two decades. However, Robb had originally hailed from Victoria, having been raised in a working-class Catholic family that supported the Democratic Labor Party. He came to the Liberal Party via student politics and a job at the newly established National Farmers Federation, which was an assertive voice for labour market deregulation during his period as executive director after 1985. As federal director of the Liberal Party, Robb oversaw the 1990, 1993 and 1996 election campaigns, after which he set up the marketing company Acxiom for Kerry Packer. His first term in parliament was the last of the Howard government, in which he was promoted to parliamentary secretary in January 2006 and thence to the outer ministry as Vocational and Further Education Minister in January 2007.
Robb nominated for the deputy leadership after the 2007 election, but was defeated by Julie Bishop. He instead became Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, and was briefly discussed as a leadership candidate when Malcolm Turnbull was embroiled in the “Utegate” affair in the middle of 2009. Shortly afterwards he made the surprise announcement that he was moving to the back bench owing to a depressive illness. He returned to the front bench in the finance portfolio in March 2010, from which he was resassigned to trade and investment after the 2013 election victory.
@Dee/698
So they slide in bad news under the radar with the MH17, talk about poor taste.
It will fail like last time.
A normal, rational person, maybe. But Abbott being neither, has made an art frorm of contradicting himself, lying and bullshitting at every turn. And of course, getting away with it.
@Confessions/700
The real reason is so that Job search providers and private sector get paid.
Crows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
A compliant fish-bowl-memory press sure helps too…
dee
Pure dog whistle politics. It has absolutely nothing to do with the budget.
I prefer currawongs!
Bemused Comrade
“From what Angus Houston said, this is not really a problem and the local population and the secessionists have been as good as one could wish.”
Houston was crystal clear and unequivocal about the separatists’ not being a threat to proceedings.
Houston’s precise words regarding them were “permissive, helpful, cooperative, professional”. I don’t see how it could more clearly be expressed that the separatists are 100% onside.
Right now Abbott is on ABC 7pm news saying “apparently it’s now safe at the site”. The prick has listened to Houston and now begins the big retreat from his pug language.
Next to the families, we easily lose sight of the fact that the rebels and the local people are probably going to suffer more than any other group for their lifetime, the traumatic effects of what has happened in their backyards, in their houses.
Darren
Only if cooked well.
BK:
Damn! I tipped the PIes.
This is a return to the 1920’s.
Confessions
Thanks!
Also front page of the Sunday Mail today.
“War on Bludgers”
I only glanced at it in passing and had no idea what was afoot until I read that article this evening.
Mmmm…. end of article.
Dee:
Like most initiatives of this govt, it hardly seems based on evidence of effectiveness.
Once they’ve done wrecking the joint and have finally been kicked out of govt, I just hope it isn’t going to take too long or too much cost for Labor to redress some of this madness we’ve seen.
@Confesssions/714
They need to link changes to legislation.
Thank you Labor, for infighting.
Confessions
The ALP will need more than one term to clean up the Coalition mess.
In all honesty, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Coalition try to force aged pensioners to do voluntary work for the pension and those disabled/incapacitated in some way will need a medical certificate for exemption.
OKAY.
Sounds good to me.
Dee:
Even if we could get rid of the coalition after one term (unlikely, but not impossible), there’s still the Senate to contend with. And even though people have been lauding Clive of late as having had some kind of come-to-jesus progressive awakening, the current Senate seems more ideologically aligned with a conservative agenda, than a Labor reforming agenda.
@ABCFactCheck: Our interactive #promisetracker is now live. See the promises the Govt has kept, broken and everything in between http://t.co/ONHRXss7dW
“War on Bludgers”: like conservatives everywhere, this government blames the unemployed for unemployment.
Yes, a well-cooked currawong pie! Mmmmmmm!
Two reasons why I think labor would do better with this Senate:
1. Shorten actually knows how to negotiate;
2. If they cause too much trouble, Shorten can call a double dissolution election and clean them out. I think that would be very popular. Abbott can’t do that because he is so unpopular – so they don’t take him seriously.
Thinking on NSW ALPs decision to keep Senators and Upper House selections out of members hands.
It was easier in Qld with no upper house to get this through, vested interest was less.
Maybe an idea for other States is to split the Senate vote from the Upper House vote. Tiny steps an all that.
The ABC reckons only 6 broken promises? Boerwar needs to email them his list of 100+ broken promises, and that was in the first 6 months of this govt!
But wouldn’t a DD election would benefit the micro parties? I’ve seen this raised as one possible reason the current govt won’t go there with PUP’s current polling.
Late breaking news from “The Times of Israel”.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/owl-hurt-by-hamas-fire-recovering/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Jamie Clements reacts to Mark Latham’s attack about NSW Labor by giving him the bird:
confessions – You may well be right
http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/mumble/index.php/theaustralian/comments/dd_musings/
Zoid
The same old tried and failed strategies for the unemployed.
Aside from the obvious, jobs, we really need some imaginative ideas.
Has anyone bothered to ask the unemployed what strategies may actually help ‘them’?
The Sunday Mail front page.
http://couriermail.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
K17:
Ta. Knew I’d seen it said somewhere before.
Marathon finish in a minute or two looks like Gold 4 Australia
LOL – ABC still doesn’t get it — it doesn’t matter how apologetic it gets towards the Coalition, it will never be right-wing enough for them and will continue to cop it.
ABC may as well bend over now and take its medicine…
lizzie
Are you suggesting I’m like this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhLriN3nBdE
Thanks a lot.
Have to say, not too keen on the crocheted number.
Confirmed Shelley wins Gold for Australia in the Narathon. Kenya got silver
I don’t recall Grandstanding Abbott or the compliant MSM mentioning any of this. Has the Lying Friar been withholding information from us?
http://on.fb.me/1mRtnMX
sprocket_
A comment from your link. Now how many of these boxes did Tony tick, any ?
“@profsarahj: Are Australians going? MT @BBCBreaking Dutch investigators not going to MH17 crash site in E Ukraine due to security concerns, acc to OSCE”
Poroti
Yes, the comments by the Malaysians are very supportive of the achievements of the quiet diplomacy of their government. The OCSE have also been dealing direct with the rebels.
The deal with the rebels may unravel however, as the Ukrainian government troops are now cranking up their attack with tanks of Donetsk and surrounds, trying to take advantage of Putin being temporarily on the back foot.
In any case, MH17 is yesterday’s story.
AH5017 is more recent.
From OSCE.
http://osce.einnews.com/article/215752965/fPhPM7mEFJY9tHCP
@AlboMP: Proud to receive an award from Justice for Cyprus tonight with Jack Passaris and Michael Christodoulou http://t.co/w1HKkhB39Z
I heard that presentation on ABC TV News tonight.
The verdict was that Abbott had kept more promises than he had broken.
which doesn’t, of course, account for the things he never said, but did (or tried to do) and the over-arching promise of “No excuses. No Surprises”.
I was disappointed that the ABC did *not* mention, as a promise broken, cuts to funding of the ABC.
But then, that’s the world we live in: the ABC trying overtime to be “balanced” and the government not giving a shit that they do.
Humanitarian ceasefire over?
What astounds me is that Israels intelligence service, Mossad is considered the most efficient and brutal in the world.
Why then, are they so incapable of tracking down what is considered a primitive organization, Hamas?
And by primitive, I mean they don’t have the resources, the technology at their disposal.
Beat your chest with this Mr Abbott!
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2sKo4gkICzwdFozMVpNZ0ZmeDg/edit?pli=1
Justice for Cyprus is an anti-Turkish body.
“@RANews: BREAKING: Aust police who were planning to head to the crash site of Malaysian flight #MH17 have scrapped their trip over security concerns”
“@GrogsGamut: Excellent effort, @JessTrengove has third wrapped up in the marathon #commgames”
Jack will be happy.
It’s hard to work out the ABC’s game in the promises broken/kept scoreboard.
Apart from conflating number and impact as if being somehow equal it is interesting to note that of the 12 so-say “delivered” promises 6 are of the “establish an inquiry”, “hold a commission”, “initiate a review” “establish a council” and “move a government department” type. In other words, nothing more than easy, paper-shuffling exercises.
Apart from these 6 there are policies which deliver relatively small sums of assistance to limited areas of the electorate (2 or 3) while the carbon tax repeal has been noted as delivered – but not much comment about its hacked outcome.
Of the two remaining delivered one was touch and go through the senate and the other is of not much consequence.
Really not much to show for nearly a year in office I would have thought, when it is supposedly the first year of government that the tough policies are initiated.
It shows in fact, a rather do-no-much poor government.
The question should be, why only 12?
Justice for Cyprus is anti-Turkish occupation of Cyprus.
So all the unemployed will need to work for the dole?
Great news…I’m sure the Greens will be ecstatic. They can all plant trees which will mitigate global warming – when it actually starts.