THE POLL BLUDGER
House of Representatives Election 2007

FORREST
Liberal 10.7%

Forrest covers the south-western corner of Western Australia, taking in Bunbury, Busselton, Collie, Manjimup and Margaret River. It was created in 1922 from territory that had previously been covered by Swan, and has since covered a shifting area of the south-west. A significant change occurred in 2001 when the southern coast city of Albany was transferred to O'Connor. Forrest was held by the Country Party for the first 21 years of its existence, switching with the landmark elections of 1943 (to Labor) and 1949 (to Liberal). The Liberal Party's reign has since been interrupted only with the 1969 election, when External Affairs Minister Gordon Freeth lost the seat after incurring the wrath of the DLP for downplaying the Soviet threat in the Indian Ocean. It returned to the Liberal fold against the trend of the 1972 election (as did another Western Australian seat, Stirling), subsequently being held by Peter Drummond until 1987 and Geoff Prosser thereafter. With Prosser retiring at the coming election, the Liberals initially endorsed Busselton Shire deputy president Philippa Reid, but she was forced to withdraw when details emerged of her personal and professional relationship with unofficial party powerbroker Noel Crichton-Browne. The new candidate is Nola Marino, a Harvey dairy farmer. Marino must overcome a challenge from high-profile independent Noel Brunning, known very well locally as the news reader on WA's regional television channel Golden West Network. Brunning briefly suspended his campaign in late August citing “exhaustion to the point of collapse”, but was back on the trail a few weeks later.

In August The West Australian's Robert Taylor reported that Marino's “performance on the stump so far has dismayed some elements of the party and has been discussed all the way up to the Prime Minister's office”. A Liberal quoted on ABC Radio in early October compared her performance to that of Nicole Cornes, Labor's maligned candidate for Boothby. Marino was defended by another Liberal quoted by Robert Taylor, who accused thwarted preselection hopefuls of “using Brunning to settle scores”. Prosser was one of a number of departing members said to be on the receiving end of Liberal pleading to reconsider their retirement plans.

Local news site the Geographe Gazette reported in the first week of the campaign that Craig Carbone, the Liberal candidate for Collie-Wellington at the 2005 state election, informed Nola Marino she was “within 'inches' of being dropped”.

In late September, Andrew Probyn of The West Australian reported that Noel Brunning was “picking up strong interest among the voters”, although this seemed to be based only on unsurprising Liberal polling which gave him higher name recognition than the Labor and Liberal candidates.