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THE POLL BLUDGER CHISHOLM
An always-precarious seat in south-eastern Melbourne, Chisholm balances plush Liberal-voting Mont Albert and Box Hill in the north against strongly Labor Chadstone, Oakleigh and Clayton in the south. It no longer contains any of the territory it covered when created in 1949, which included Camberwell and Glen Iris to the west (which today make neighbouring Higgins a safe seat for the Liberals). Labor first became competitive following a big swing in 1980, and finished the job with a smaller swing in 1983. The 1984 election brought Labor's Helen Mayer within 191 votes of a surprise defeat, after the new Senate voting system prompted a spike in the informal vote. The gentlest of swings brought it back to the Liberal fold in 1987, the new member being future Howard government Health Minister Michael Wooldridge. Many thought Wooldridge to be in danger when a redistribution shaved 2.5 per cent from his margin going into the 1996 election, but the electoral tide was running a different direction that year. He moved on to the greener pastures of Casey, leaving his abandoned constituents to transfer their allegiance to Labor's Anna Burke in 1998. | |