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THE POLL BLUDGER CANBERRA
Canberra covers the half of the national capital south of Molonglo River and Lake Burley Griffin. The south-of-the-water area around Barton and Kingston was formerly in Fraser to make up the numbers, but it has now been added to Canberra due to stronger population growth in the northern suburbs. The electorate of Canberra was created in 1974 when the existing single electorate of Australian Capital Territory was divided into two. Inaugural member Kep Enderby was buried in the 1975 landslide after serving as Attorney-General in the final year of the Whitlam government, but the seat's natural Labor inclination reasserted itself with the election of Ros Kelly in 1980. Kelly made an indulgent departure from parliament in 1995 after losing her cabinet position over the "sports rorts" affair, and the resulting by-election produced a catastrophic 16.2 per cent swing and the election of current ACT Liberal MLA Brendan Smyth. The ACT was divided into three electorates for one term after the 1996 election, and Smyth unsuccessfully contested the new seat of Namadji in the outer southern suburbs. Canberra was won for Labor by Bob McMullan, who had previously been in the Senate. Since the third seat was abolished in 1998, the ACT's electorates have had around 110,000 enrolled voters compared with about 85,000 for mainland states and less than 50,000 for the Northern Territory. The reassertion of the existing boundaries (more or less) in 1998 shaved 5.1 per cent from the Labor margin, prompting McMullan to jump ship to Fraser. Canberra went to the former member for Namadji, Annette Ellis, while Fraser MP Steve Dargavel was squeezed out. Ellis secured the seat with a 7.7 per cent swing was untroubled in 2001 and 2004. | |