Mount Druitt

Margin: Labor 6.0%
Region: Western Sydney
Federal: Chifley

Outgoing member: Richard Amery (Labor)

Candidates in ballot paper order

	EDMOND ATALLA Labor (top) ROBYN HAMILTON No Land Tax OLIVIA LLOYD Liberal (bottom) BRENT ROBERTSON Greens JOSH GREEN Christian Democratic Party

A western Sydney seat of sufficient strength for Labor that it withstood the blast of 2011, Mount Druitt will be vacated at the coming election by its member of 24 years, Richard Amery. The electorate is centred around 30 kilometres from the city, extending from Minchinbury north through Mount Druitt and Rooty Hill to Bidwill and Hassall Grove. The redistribution has made only minor changes, adding 2200 voters at Dean Park in the electorate’s north-east from Riverstone, and transferring nearly 3000 around Willmot to Londonderry in the north-west. The changes have slightly reduced the Labor margin, from 6.7% to 6.0%.

The electorate of Mount Druitt has been held by Labor at all times during its two separate periods in existence, the first extending from 1971 to 1981 and the second running from 1991 to the present. Richard Amery came to the seat in 1991 as the redistribution had weakened him in his existing seat of Riverstone, which he had held since 1983. Amery established himself as a figure of influence in the Right sub-faction known as the “Troglodytes”, but its eclipse by the rival “Terrigals” grouping of Joe Tripodi and Eddie Obeid exposed him to preselection threats on at least one occasion, and may have played a role in limiting his ministerial career to a stint in agriculture and additional minor portfolios from 1995 to 2003.

Labor’s new candidate for the seat is Edmond Atalla, a Blacktown councillor who won preselection without opposition.

Corrections, complaints and feedback to William Bowe at pollbludger-at-bigpond-dot-com. Read William’s blog, The Poll Bludger.

Back to Crikey’s New South Wales election guide