Seat of the week: Jagajaga

Covering the eastern reaches of Melbourne, the electorate of Jagajaga has provided a reasonably secure electoral base for Jenny Macklin’s parliamentary career since 1996.

Jenny Macklin’s electorate of Jagajaga was created with the expansion of parliament in 1984, and covers suburbs in north-eastern Melbourne from Heidelberg and Ivanhoe out to North Warrandyte in the east. Its present area was mostly in the electorate of Bourke from federation until 1926, which accounted for northern Melbourne including Brunswick and Reservoir; Flinders and Indi from 1922 to 1937, which respectively covered its western suburban and eastern interior regions; Deakin from its recreation in 1937 until 1955, at which time Ivanhoe was absorbed by Batman; and Diamond Valley in its eastern parts from 1969 to 1984. When created in 1984, Jagajaga extended north to Bundoora and had the Yarra River as its eastern boundary, with Eltham and its surrounds accommodated by Casey and Menzies. Its present configuration was largely adopted at the redistribution which took effect at the 1996 election.

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

Jagajaga was in part the successor to abolished Diamond Valley, although that seat’s extension into rural areas further to the north made it a marginal seat that went with the government of the day at each election during an existence that ran from 1969 to 1984. Diamond Valley was won narrowly for Labor in 1983 by Peter Staples at the expense of Liberal incumbent Neil Brown, who would return to parliament in 1984 as member for Menzies and later became deputy Liberal leader (and was more recently a contentious appointment to the panel that appoints ABC board directors). Staples secured the considerably more accommodating electoral territory of Jagajaga in 1984, which had a notional Labor margin of 8.4%, and retained the seat until his retirement in 1996, in which time his closest shave was a 2.6% winning margin amid the Victorian anti-Labor backlash of 1990.

Staples was succeeded by Jenny Macklin, a former researcher and state ministerial staffer and member of the Socialist Left. Macklin retained the seat by 2.7% on her electoral debut and secured slightly stronger margins over the the next three elections. After the 2001 election she rose to the position of deputy leader, a position she maintained until Kim Beazley was deposed by Kevin Rudd in December 2006, at which point she made way for Julia Gillard. Macklin also exchanged her education portfolio for family and community services and indigenous affairs, which retained without interruption throughout the six-year saga of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government. The only change to her workload in government was an exchange of housing for disability reform in December 2011. This continuity has been maintained in opposition, albeit that she relinquished indigenous affairs and families and community services was rebadged as families and payments. In the meantime, Macklin secured her hold on Jagajaga with strong successive swings in 2007 and 2010, respectively pushing her margin out to 9.0% and 11.5%, before a forceful 8.1% swing to the Liberals in 2013 pared it back to 3.1%.

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.

1,057 comments on “Seat of the week: Jagajaga”

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  6. This seems all of a piece with what we know of Abbott and his mates at University. I won’t quote too much because they disgust me.

    [Young Liberals at one the country’s most elite universities have posted racist, crude and misogynist comments on social media, describing women as ”sluts”, Muslims as ”degenerates” and saying all feminists are ugly.

    Only days after two Liberal candidates were forced to quit ahead of November’s state election over a series of derogatory posts on Facebook and Twitter, the party has been rocked again by offensive behaviour in its ranks.

    In a series of screenshots of Facebook messages leaked to Fairfax Media, the Melbourne University Liberal Club members attack feminist and alumni Germaine Greer, take aim at homosexuality, and repeatedly demean women.]

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/misogynist-rants-from-young-libs-20140809-3dfhw.html#ixzz39vy0OmCd

  7. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Jaqui Lambi taunts the Nats over uni fees legislation.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/grow-a-set-pup-opposes-uni-reforms-20140809-3dfdu.html
    A good column from Peter FitzSimons.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/coach-abbott-lacing-up-the-boots-again-20140808-101v5q.html
    Metadata and our civil rights.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/metadata-access-in-new-national-security-laws-raises-civil-liberties-concern-20140808-1021ee.html
    Poor darlings!
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/the-kirribilli-club-eyes-155-million-sale-amid-mounting-debts-20140809-1027j8.html
    This time. maybe this time.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/uturn-on-marriage-a-votewinner-20140809-3dfdw.html
    J’Accuse, a large group of eminent Australians, writes an open letter to the Abbott government.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/uturn-on-marriage-a-votewinner-20140809-3dfdw.html
    Annabel Crabbe’s moderately funny effort has a good David Rowe Team Australia cartoon in it.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/captain-abbott-relax-team-australia-nothing-is-under-control-20140808-101u94.html
    Peter Martin and the psychology of unemployment.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/being-unemployed-isnt-as-bad-as-you-think-20140808-101q9p.html
    Charles Waterstreet on the international sexual exploitation of Thailand.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/thai-surrogate-baby-gammy-is-the-victim-of-an-unregulated-world-20140808-1025n7.html

  8. I know it’s fairly early in the morning, but I read the comments above and think I’m in a parallel universe. 🙂 Banans? Watermelons? Is this code for the impending invasion of Iraq and Syria?

    What do they have to do with Jagajaga?

    sceptic – Abbott won’t have time to appear as a character witness. He’ll be too busy emulating his beloved Howard and blowing the crap out of Iraq before we know where we are. Water and medical supplies one day – bombs the next. Do none of these idiots ever learn from history? I already know the answer so that was rhetorical.

  9. Section 2 . . .

    Barnaby dishes out a placebo to his constituency but they know what it is.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/dairy-exporters-await-effects-of-russian-ban-20140808-3de4k.html
    Alan Moir on Abbott’s sportsmanship.
    http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
    This is a good read about a family break up.
    http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/love-honour–betray-20140805-3d6ba.html
    Is there a more despicable bunch than the Young Libs?
    http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/misogynist-rants-from-young-libs-20140809-3dfhw.html
    Fairfax management has kicked an ants’ nest.
    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/09/islamic-groups-threaten-smh-boycott-over-mike-carltons-departure
    Peter Wicks – Michael Smith has been looking for unicorns to distract from Kathy Jackson’s woes.
    http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/09/islamic-groups-threaten-smh-boycott-over-mike-carltons-departure
    A new language has been identified. Brandish.
    https://newmatilda.com/2014/08/09/excuse-me-sir-i-speak-brandish-transcript-hell
    A good account of the Murdoch phone hacking trials.
    http://www.independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/news-corp-beyond-contempt,6757
    The three worst things the Liberals did yesterday.
    http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2014/08/10/the-three-worst-things-the-liberals-did-yesterday-26/
    AFLgate is hotting up as things go to trial tomorrow.
    http://catallaxyfiles.com/2014/08/09/aflgate-is-hotting-up/

  10. lizzie

    You don’t surprise me. It’s hearsay evidence so I won’t repeat it but I have it on good authority that Mr A is not the shining light he purports to be. Sorry if that sounds like the sort of cryptic comment that you read in a Sunday rag, but it would be defamation to say more.

    Anyway, it’s probably recorded on my mobile network somewhere so I’m sure the thought police will be at my door any minute. LOL.

  13. Headline in The Age
    “Australia set to send Hercules to Iraq”
    Underneath it, a picture of Abbott looking faintly anxious.

    Because I have a “classic” education rather than a military background, I had an instant picture of Tone in his budgie smugglers, muscles bulging, holding back the invading hordes.

  15. confessions

    It may also explain why Liberal women often don’t understand misogyny, “can’t see what the fuss is about”.

  22. lizzie

    Maybe the issue to look at is why so many Uni Young Libs come from all boy private Christian schools … Michael Sabljak being an ex Xavier College( Melbourne) boy… with a fine Jesuit education.

  23. [THE LIBERAL Party has embraced the unusual political strategy of registering the domain name “Abbott Lies’’ as a website address and redirecting all traffic to Liberal website promoting the May budget.

    Stung by accusations that Tony Abbott has broken promises as Prime Minister, the Liberal Party decided to beat Labor to the punch and register the address http://www.abbottlies.com.au.

    But the attempt by digital natives within the Coalition to get ahead of the game has backfired with Labor openly mocking the bizarre strategy.

    Anyone who types in the address “Abbott lies’’ is now redirected to an image of Joe Hockey beaming behind a banner that urges readers to “lean more’ about the 2014 budget. The abbottlies.com.au web traffic is immediately diverted to http://www.liberal.org.au

    According to domain registry documents the website was registered by the Liberal Party of Australia on May 13, the same day that Joe Hockey delivered his first budget.]

    http://m.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/liberal-party-registers-abbottliescomau-to-beat-labor-to-digital-punch/story-fni0cx12-1227019121938?nk=0e6a9927b7a756d58db7fe8cb43933d9

  26. DO NOT CLICK on the Abbott lies link if you are in a hurry or you have a slow internet.

    It has a bug (like the nasty adds/virus). I had to close the TAB because the go back button would not work. It is in some kind of loop.

  31. BK
    Just reading about Irish Senator Norris – a fascinating if somewhat bizarre life. His views on Israel are no doubt related to those of his long term boy friend the Israeli peace activist Ezra Nawi.

  33. Morning all

    This article in the daily terror is rather curious to me

    [After finding a thankyou note for a $3000 bottle of Grange he knew would doom Mr O’Farrell, Nick Di Girolamo said: “There was a voice in my head asking: ‘Should we have a bonfire session’?“
    But even though he knew people would think he was a snitch, he added: “It would have been illegal. I was still under oath.”
    Mr Di Girolamo also revealed a funeral director had been charged with making death threats against him and that he had lodged a complaint against ICAC lawyer Geoffrey Watson.]

    http://www.news.com.au/national/nsw-act/a-crisis-of-conscience-death-threats-and-a-smoking-gun-nick-di-girolamo-reveals-why-he-had-to-snitch-on-premier-barry-ofarrell/story-fnii5s3x-1227019208883

  34. Morning all. So supporting an issue that most voters are in favor of will win you votes? That will be quite a shock in the Liberal bunker.

    As for the misogyny, if it starts in the home, then no surprises when families with a strong political leaning keep producing new generations with the same lousy attitude. If the kids went to a mainstream school, they would have it knocked out of them on the playground, but no, they get sent to elitist refuges for the same kind of people.

    Same problem with the homophobia, although there I suspect many of the strongest critics are covering up for their own personal doubts about their own sexuality. Amazing how many homophobes are secretly gay or bi in both USA and Oz.

  35. BK

    There’s some really decent public art around these days.

    (in view just behind the Tate Moderns ‘Spider’ are two of the three Barbican Towers – the brown ones just to the right of St Pauls. Lauderdale is hidden behind the Dome.)

  36. BK – You’re right.

    [It honors the Jews who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II.]

  38. Socrates

    These attitudes do start in the home, but I have always felt that students being educated in an environment where there is only one gender, does skew things too. There are statistics to indicate much better academic outcomes for single sex schools, but I would like to see feedback on how it impacts on the development of the student in social terms.

  41. Morneroonies Bludgeroonies………Barry & Bolt here we go!!!!!:)

    I hope everyone has been nice 2 each other so you have saved it up 4 Everything’s return!

  44. “@danielhurstbne: Pyne tells #australianagenda he’s not losing heart over uni reforms; he thinks he’s winning public argument for greater student contribution”

    “@Leroy_Lynch: Clive Palmer has stated categorically that PUP will not vote for the deregulation of university fees http://t.co/eC1JUoXmfi #auspol #ausedu”

  46. Victoria

    Good question re the schools. I went to a single sex (christian brother) school that was not elitist, but I was taught to be tolerant and respect difference. Of course, that was in the catholic church in the post vatican II era, before the hardline counter-revolution under John Paul. Anyway, my experience shows that single sex schools do not have to be breeding grounds for that, even if these days many clearly are.

  48. “Metadata is the name and address on the envelope.”

    I think this will be around to haunt the Liberal Party for a long while. What foolishness.

  50. BK

    For those who can’t get the Palin clip, her’s a transcript:

    [“We believe”? Wait, I thought fast food joints, hurh. Don’t you guys think that they’re like of the Devil or somethin’ I was. Liberals, you want to send those evil employees who would dare work at a fast food joint then ya just don’t believe in, thought you wanted to, I dunno, send them to Purgatory or somethin’ so they all go VEGAN and, uh, wages and picket lines I dunno they’re not often discussed in Purgatory, are they? I dunno why are you even worried about fast food wages because dha.

    Well, we believe an America where minimum wage jobs they’re not lifetime gigs they’re stepping stone”]

    hmmm

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