On reflection, my previous post, intended as the first in a series of “Call of the Board” posts reviewing in detail the result of the May 18 election, was deficient in two aspects. The first is that patterns in the results estimated by my demographic model were said to be “difficult to discern”, which can only have been because I didn’t look hard enough. In fact, the results provide evidence for remarkably strong incumbency effects. Of the 12 Liberals defending their seats in the Sydney area, all but Tony Abbott outperformed the modelled estimate of the Liberal two-party vote, by an average of 4.0%. Of the 15 Labor members, all but two (Julie Owens in Parramatta and Anne Stanley in Werriwa) outperformed the model, the average being 3.4%.
The other shortcoming of the post was that it did not, indeed, call the board – a now-abandoned ritual of election night broadcasting in which the results for each electorate were quickly reviewed in alphabetical order at the end of the night, so that nobody at home would feel left out. You can find this done for the Sydney seats over the fold, and it will be a feature of the Call of the Board series going forward.
Banks (Liberal 6.3%; 4.8% swing to Liberal): After winning the seat for the Liberals in 2013 for the first time since its creation in 1949, David Coleman has now scored three wins on the trot, the latest by comfortably his biggest margin to date: 6.3%, compared with 2.8% in 2013 and 1.4% in 2016. In a post-election account for the Age/Herald, Michael Koziol reported that Labor’s national secretariat and state branch were at loggerheads over the seat late in the campaign, with the former wishing to devote resources to the seat, and the latter recognising that they “didn’t stand a chance”.
Barton (Labor 9.4%; 1.1% swing to Labor): Located around the crossover point where the inner urban swing to Labor gave way to the outer urban swing to Liberal, Barton recorded a slight swing to Labor that was perhaps boosted by a sophomore effect for incumbent Linda Burney.
Bennelong (Liberal 6.9%; 2.8% swing to Labor): A fair bit has been written lately about Labor’s struggles with the Chinese community, particularly in New South Wales, but that did not stop the nation’s most Chinese electorate recording a reasonably solid swing to Labor. This perhaps reflected the quality of Labor’s candidate, neurosurgeon Brian Owler, but was also typical of a seat where Malcolm Turnbull had played well in 2016, when it swung 2.8% to the Liberals.
Berowra (Liberal 15.6%; 0.8% swing to Labor): Most of this outer northern Sydney seat is in the outer part of the zone that swung to Labor, barring a few lightly populated regions out north and west. However, Liberal member Julian Leeser is what I will call a half-sophomore – a first-term incumbent, but one who succeeded a member of the same party (in this case Philip Ruddock), so there was no reversal of the sitting member advantage. So the 0.8% swing to Labor is about par for the course.
Blaxland (Labor 14.7%; 4.8% swing to Liberal): The anti-Labor swing suffered by Jason Clare was fairly typical for Sydney’s south-west.
Bradfield (Liberal 16.6%; 4.5% swing to Labor): Apart from the exceptional cases of Warringah and Wentworth, this was the biggest swing against the Liberals in New South Wales. However, given it was only fractionally lower in neighbouring North Sydney, that’s unlikely to be a reflection on sitting member Paul Fletcher, instead reflecting the electorate’s affluence and proximity to the city. The seat also recorded the state’s biggest swing to the Greens, at 2.0%.
Chifley (Labor 12.4%; 6.8% swing to Liberal): Ed Husic suffered Labor’s biggest unfavourable swing in Sydney (and the second biggest in the state after Hunter), after enjoying the second biggest favourable swing in 2016 (after Macarthur).
Cook (Liberal 19.0%; 3.6% swing to Liberal): As noted in the previous post, Scott Morrison enjoys the biggest Liberal margin in New South Wales relative to what might be expected from the electorate’s demographic composition. Only part of this can be explained by a prime ministership effect, as his 3.6% swing ranked only twelfth out of the 47 seats in New South Wales.
Dobell (Labor 1.5%; 3.3% swing to Liberal): The two seats on the Central Coast behaved similarly to most of suburban Sydney in swinging solidly to the Liberals, but there was enough padding on the Labor margin to save Emma McBride in Dobell, a marginal seat that lands Labor’s way more often than not.
Fowler (Labor 14.0%; 3.5% swing to Liberal): Labor’s Chris Hayes suffered a swing unremarkable by the standards of western Sydney, or perhaps slightly at the low end of average.
Grayndler (Labor 16.3% versus Greens; 0.5% swing to Labor): As illustrated in the previous post, Anthony Albanese’s personal popularity continues to define results in Grayndler, where the Labor margin is well out of proportion to demographic indicators. Whereas the Greens hold the largely corresponding state seats of Balmain and Newtown, in Grayndler they struggle to harness enough of the left-of-centre vote to finish ahead of the Liberals. They just managed it on this occasion, as they had previously in 2010 and 2016, outpolling the Liberals 22.6% to 21.8% on the primary vote, narrowing to 24.2% to 23.8% after the exclusion of three other candidates. Albanese cleared 50% of the primary vote for the first time since 2007, helped by a smaller field of candidates than last time, and had a locally typical 1.5% two-party swing against the Liberals.
Greenway (Labor 2.8%; 3.5% swing to Liberal): The swing against Labor’s Michelle Rowland was typical for middle suburbia, and roughly reversed the swing in her favour in 2016.
Hughes (Liberal 9.8%; 0.5% swing to Liberal): Craig Kelly did rather poorly to gain a swing of only 0.5% – as a careful look at the results map shows, the boundary between Hughes and Cook marks a distinct point where Labor swings turn to Liberal ones. The demographic model suggests Kelly to be the third most poorly performing Liberal incumbent out of the 13 in the Sydney area, ahead of Tony Abbott (Warringah) and Lucy Wicks (Robertson).
Kingsford Smith (Labor 8.8%; 0.2% swing to Labor): It was noted here previously that Matt Thistlethwaite strongly outperforms the demographic model, but the near status quo result on this occsion did little to contribute to that. This seat was roughly on the geographic crossover point between the Labor swings of the city and the Liberal swings of the suburbs.
Lindsay (LIBERAL GAIN 5.0%; 6.2% swing to Liberal): One of five seats lost by Labor at the election, and the only one in Sydney. Like the others, Lindsay was gained by Labor in 2016, with Emma Husar scoring a 1.1% margin from a 4.1% swing. This was more than reversed in Husar’s absence, with Liberal candidate Melissa McIntosh prevailing by 5.0%. The 6.2% swing against Labor was the biggest in the Sydney area, and produced a Liberal margin comparable to Jackie Kelly’s strongest.
Macarthur (Labor 8.4%; 0.1% swing to Labor): To repeat what was said in the previous post: Labor strongly outpolled the demographic model in Macarthur, a seat the Liberals held from 1996 until 2016, when Russell Matheson suffered first an 8.3% reduction in his margin at a redistribution, and then an 11.7% swing to Labor’s Michael Freelander, a local paediatrician. The swing to Labor, tiny though it was, ran heavily against the trend of urban fringe seats across the country. In addition to Freelander’s apparent popularity, this probably reflected a lack of effort put into the Liberal campaign compared with last time, as the party narrowly focused on its offensive moves in Lindsay and Macquarie and defensive ones in Gilmore and Reid. Macarthur was one of six seats in New South Wales contested by One Nation, whose 8.6% seemed to be drawn equally from Labor and Liberal.
Mackellar (Liberal 13.2%; 2.5% swing to Labor): Jason Falinski’s northern beaches seat participated in the swing to Labor in inner and northern Sydney, though in this case it was a fairly modest 2.5%, perhaps reflecting Falinski’s half-sophomore effect. A 12.2% vote for independent Alice Thompson caught most of the combined 14.9% for three independents in 2016, leaving the large parties’ vote shares little changed.
Macquarie (Labor 0.2%; 2.0% swing to Liberal): A sophomore surge for Labor member Susan Templeman surely made the difference here, with the 2.0% swing to the Liberals being below the outer urban norm, and just short of what was required to take the seat.
McMahon (Labor 6.6%; 5.5% swing to Liberal): The swing against Chris Bowen was well at the higher end of the scale and, typically for such a result, followed a strong swing the other way in 2016, in this case of 7.5%. This was among the six seats in New South Wales contested by One Nation, whose 8.3% contributed to a 7.4% primary vote swing against Bowen, and perhaps also to the size of the two-party swing.
Mitchell (Liberal 18.6%; 0.8% swing to Liberal): Where most safe Liberal seats in Sydney were in the zone of inner and northern Sydney that swung to Labor, Mitchell is far enough west to encompass the crossover point where Labor swings gave way to Liberal ones. This translated into a modest 0.8% swing to Liberal member Alex Hawke, and very little change on the primary vote.
North Sydney (Liberal 9.3%; 4.3% swing to Labor): Trent Zimmerman’s seat caught the brunt of the inner urban swing to Labor, the 4.3% swing to Labor being the state’s fourth highest after Warringah, Wentworth and Bradfield, the latter of which just shaded it. Labor managed a hefty 8.3% gain on the primary vote, largely thanks to the absence of Stephen Ruff, who polled 12.8% as an independent in 2016. The one independent on this occasion was serial candidate Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, a former Democrats member of the state upper house, who managed only 4.4%.
Parramatta (Labor 3.5%; 4.2% swing to Liberal): Parramatta marks the crossover point where the Liberal swing in western Sydney begins, producing a 4.2% swing against Labor’s Julie Owens that only partly unwound the 6.4% swing she picked up in 2016.
Reid (Liberal 3.2%; 1.5% swing to Labor): The Liberals maintained their remarkable record in this seat going back to 2013, when they won it for the first time in the seat’s history, by limiting the swing to Labor to a manageable 1.5%. While the 3.2% margin is only modestly higher than that predicted by the demographic model, it was achieved despite the departure of two-term sitting member Craig Laundy, who is succeeded by Fiona Martin.
Robertson (Liberal 4.2%; 3.1% swing to Liberal): Similarly to neighbouring Dobell, the Central Coast seat of Robertson swung 3.1% to the Liberals, in this case boosting the margin of Lucy Wicks.
Sydney (Labor 18.7%; 3.4% swing to Labor): The inner urban swing to Labor added further padding to Tanya Plibersek’s margin. The Greens continue to run third behind the Liberals, who outpolled them by 26.6% to 18.1%. As is the case in Grayndler, this presumably reflects local left-wing voters’ satisfaction with the incumbent.
Warringah (INDEPENDENT GAIN 7.2% versus Liberal): Zali Steggall took a big chunk out of the big party contenders in recording 43.5% of the primary vote, but the largest of course came from Tony Abbott, down from 51.6% to 39.0%. Abbott won four booths around Forestville at the northern end of the electorate, but it was otherwise a clean sweep for Steggall. She particularly dominated on the coast around Manly, by margins ranging from 10% to 18%.
Watson (Labor 13.5%; 4.1% swing to Liberal): In a familiar suburban Sydney pattern, Tony Burke had an 8.8% swing in his favour from 2016 unwound by a 4.1% swing to the Liberals this time.
Wentworth (Liberal 1.3% versus Independent): Listed as a Liberal retain in a spirit of consistently comparing results from the 2016 election, this was of course a Liberal gain to the extent that it reversed their defeat at the hands of independent Kerryn Phelps at last October’s by-election. There was an unblemished divide between the northern end of the electorate, encompassing the coast north of Bondi and all but the westernmost part of the harbourside, where the Liberals won the two-candidate vote, and the southern end of the electorate, where Phelps did. As noted in the previous post, there was a swing to Labor of 7.9% on the two-party preferred count, but this was testament more than anything to Malcolm Turnbull’s local support.
Werriwa (Labor 5.5%; 2.7% swing to Liberal): A half-sophomore effect for Labor’s Anne Watson may have helped limit the swing here in this outer suburban seat.
peg
Thanks for that Shorten link. Thankfully brief so only another minute of my life I’ll never get back.
mikehilliard
That was a very enjoyable Drum, right through. And one high point was Kate Carnell being set back on her heels twice, the second time by Alistair Campbell.
Shorten now accosting journalists who write critical things about him!
lizzie
Yep. Campbell wasn’t going to take a lecture on democracy from the likes of Carnell.
This is not Boris Johnson.
Has Albanese morphed into Beazley?
Shorten wont resign. He will just wait until the ALP finally get elected and then he will pounce. I said on here years ago that was the only way he would ever become PM.
taylormade says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:10 pm
Shorten wont resign. He will just wait until the ALP finally get elected and then he will pounce. I said on here years ago that was the only way he would ever become PM.
__________________
Pretty telling that the only time the ALP front bench doesn’t leak is when Shorten is leader.
nath
Yeah, it tells us they think he’s a better leader.
taylormade @ #1335 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 7:10 pm
Same method as Dutton.
Shorten is only 52 yo. Would he earn more working for a union, corporation or some such?
zoomster says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:13 pm
nath
Yeah, it tells us they think he’s a better leader.
________________
Nah, it tells us that Shorten is the leaker and wont abide anyone else being leader, Rudd, Gillard or Albo.
Nicholas:
@ 6:33 pm:
Brevity’s a virtue.
Pegasus says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:13 pm
Shorten is only 52 yo. Would he earn more working for a union, corporation or some such?
_______________
He’s not really employable. His skill set at the AWU involved selling out members to further his political career. I suppose he could be a suburban solicitor but I reckon the money’s better in Parliament. He will ride Maribyrnong for all its worth, or until someone comes along to take it off him.
Obsessed.
Pegasus @ #1860 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 7:13 pm
RDN would have more as a doctor. Why does he participate?
As you point out, Shorten is young in a political sense. He will easily come back when the time is right.
Howard and Menzies spent years in the wilderness. But, ended up being long term PMs.
Interesting the news today. Govt wants its fwark the unions bill as a priority because they apparently “misbehave” and flout the law. No interest in millions and millions in wage theft by employers though.
On evidence, Libs are, by nature, nasty self interested bottom dwellers.
Sad that nath seems to have naught in his life other than an unhealthy obsession with Shorten and generally doing his best to convince people he is in fact a complete dickhead.
zoomster says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:22 pm
Obsessed.
__________
Doesn’t work on me. Of all the obsessions contributors have on here! Now Tricot’s obsession with Fran Kelly! That’s a worry.
zoomster says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:00 pm
nath
Sorry, I very rarely comment on Albanese. I don’t think I have today at all. So no, no obsession.
_____________________________________
The only obsession I see is the prick’s obsession about your purported obsession.
nath
Absolutely no one here is as obsessed with anyone or anything as much as you are with Shorten.
Seems the sad Shorten loyalists are still in shock, pining for their leader to return to be a third time loser. Bring it on!
I second the motion.
That nath is obsessed with Bill Shorten. And reserve my right to speak.
The case for the negative?
sprocket
It’s probably frustrated desire.
I saw a small article about Mr Shorten in the SMH. I did not bother to read it as assumed it was more about the NDIS I saw on twitter directly.
Should I bother to read it?
For those following the US campaign in the meantime here is the local Texas analysis of state of play.
https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2019/texas-turn-blue-voting-pattern-history/
Obsession and unacknowledged gay feelings. Pulling out all the psychological tricks! I’m certain you were a terrible teacher!
imacca
He can comfortably rest his case on the latter point!
Nath – when it comes to Shorten your antipathy to him verges on the obsessive….but then, so many have made this point about your attitude that any further comment is pointless. What is it with you and Shorten? Did he not sign your autograph book when you were a teenager or something? Anyway, you are boring beyond shitless on this topic – and most others……..
Hard to think of anything more boring than Nath or talking about Nath.
It’s still amusing how rabid the Shorten defenders can be on here.
Slightly off topic, but I was just reading some Psychology Today to brush up on nath’s frustrated desire, and came across this…
“Diogenes the Cynic, who was a contemporary of Plato in Ancient Athens, taught by living example that wisdom and happiness belong to the person who is independent of society.
After being exiled from his native Sinope for having defaced its coinage, Diogenes moved to Athens, took up the life of a beggar, and made it his mission to metaphorically deface the coinage of custom and convention, which, he maintained, was the false coin of morality. He disdained the need for conventional shelter or any other such ‘dainties’ and elected to live in a tub and survive on a diet of onions.
Diogenes was not impressed with his fellow men, not even with Alexander the Great, who, it is said, came to meet him one morning while he was lying in the sunlight. When Alexander asked him whether there was any favour he might do for him, he replied, “Yes, stand out of my sunlight.” To his credit, Alexander still declared, “If I were not Alexander, then I should wish to be Diogenes.”
Once, upon being asked to name the most beautiful of all things, Diogenes replied parrhesia, which means free speech or full expression. He used to stroll around Athens in broad daylight brandishing an ignited lamp. Whenever curious people stopped and asked what he was doing, he would reply, “I am just looking for a human being.”
Tricot says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:45 pm
Nath – when it comes to Shorten your antipathy to him verges on the obsessive….but then, so many have made this point about your attitude that any further comment is pointless. What is it with you and Shorten? Did he not sign your autograph book when you were a teenager or something? Anyway, you are boring beyond shitless on this topic – and most others……..
________________
Tricot your obsession with Fran Kelly is one of the most disturbing things I have come across on here.
nath says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:45 pm
It’s still amusing how rabid the Shorten defenders can be on here.
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The Dark Lord’s followers waiting for Voldemort’s return……………
For those that missed it. This is a resignation letter
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-24/british-mp-staffer-quits-in-dramatic-fashion-using-bosss-account/11340944
sprocket_ @ #1881 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 5:45 pm
I’d heard he was searching for an honest man.
sprocket_ @ #1880 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 7:45 pm
Sounds like our Diogenes picked the right moniker!
Excellent, excellent!
Wall to wall discussions of the psychological shortcomings of Morrison, Dutton, Taylor…
Go for it guys!
Boerwar says:
Wednesday, July 24, 2019 at 7:58 pm
Excellent, excellent!
Wall to wall discussions of the psychological shortcomings of Morrison, Dutton, Taylor…
Go for it guys!
______________________
What’s bluey’s view?
Boerwar @ #1886 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 7:58 pm
You’re soaking in it!
Go for them! The crosshairs are on their foreheads!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/24/angus-taylor-insists-he-acted-within-parliamentary-rules-over-business-interests
meanwhile, a few fairies will be outraged!
https://t.co/GhgUvBR92H
Ilhan Omar is an American Congresswoman being abused by Trump. Trump is basically a coward and a bully, who has met his match in Ilhan, who ain’t taking no backward step. For those who may not have heard her speak, here she is challenging the assumptions of a question posed to her on female genital mutilation..
https://mobile.twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1153779208289751041/video/1
GG
Diogenes did a few more unsavoury things which are better left unmentioned.
He once asked Plato what a man was and Plato answered “a featherless biped”. Diogenes went away, plucked a chicken and brought it to Plato exclaiming “Behold, I show you man.”
Margaret Fultno passes.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/margaret-fulton-dead-aged-95/news-story/75a16384f4e58b783426f42f6c143255
Diogenes @ #1892 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 8:06 pm
How did the chicken feel?
[‘…Diogenes replied parrhesia, which means free speech or full expression.’]
Intersesting post, sprocket – relevant to what some “attempt” to do here.
I do wonder, however, that given almost all of the great philosphers were Greek: whatever happended?
Imacca @7:26PM
“Sad that nath seems to have naught in his life other than an unhealthy obsession with Shorten and generally doing his best to convince people he is in fact a complete dickhead.”
That is ambiguous.
The so-called national debt or public debt is just the total number of dollars that the Australian Government has spent into existence and has not taxed away yet. It is the net money supply. It is the private sector’s savings. It is not a debt in the ordinary meaning of that word. It is not a burden or a problem.
Nicholas, our economics idiot savant.
Steve777 @ #1897 Wednesday, July 24th, 2019 – 8:14 pm
I’m not even sure that nath is married.