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Category Archives: WA By-Elections

A walk in the Park: episode two

This post exists for the benefit of a comments contributor called "Vic Park local", who has been providing excellent updates on the campaign for the Victoria Park by-election in Western Australia while the Poll Bludger’s attention has been elsewhere. His latest contribution expresses concern that the thread is about to drop off the bottom of [...]

A walk in the Park

As if two state elections on one day wasn’t enough, the by-election for Geoff Gallop’s old seat of Victoria Park in Western Australia will be held one week earlier, on March 11. The poll has attracted a cricket team of 11 candidates, not all of whose reputations precede them. Further detail may be added to [...]

Blokes on top

Wednesday night’s ALP preselection for Geoff Gallop’s seat of Victoria Park did not pan out as predicted in the previous item, with Ben Wyatt taking the prize after a vote of the party’s 14-member Administrative Committee. Wyatt is a Director of Public Prosecutions lawyer and director of Indigenous Business Australia, and his father Cedric Wyatt [...]

Creed is good

News has just emerged that the two WA Cabinet positions formerly occupied by Geoff Gallop and Environment Minister Judy Edwards will be filled by Peel MP Norm Marlborough, of the long-spurned Old Right, and Mandurah MP David Templeman. Peter Kennedy of the ABC reports that the previous favourite, Wanneroo MP Dianne Guise, fell from favour [...]

Match of the round at Victoria Park

The Western Australian ALP’s factional chieftains have been kept busy lately, their silly season interrupted by the surprise resignation of Geoff Gallop as both Premier and member for the lucrative seat of Victoria Park. This was followed by Environment Minister Judy Edwards’ decision to return to the back-bench, which left four crucially important positions (the [...]

Nothing succeeds like succession

The first word to reach the Poll Bludger on the matter of Geoff Gallop’s likely successor as WA Premier comes from the inimitable Andrew Landeryou, whose sources tell him that "Labor moderate State Development Minister and tough guy Alan Carpenter is likely to prevail". That would have been my tip if anyone had told me [...]

Geoff Gallop to resign?

Perth radio is suddenly abuzz with rumours that WA Premier Geoff Gallop is about to announce his resignation on health grounds. Developing …
UPDATE (12.48pm WST): NineMSN reports "BREAKING NEWS: Gallop to resign as WA Premier due to illness".
UPDATE (1.04pm WST): Gallop has delivered a press conference announcing he has decided to quit politics as [...]