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THE POLL BLUDGER FREMANTLE
The port city of Fremantle is located at the southern mouth of the Swan River 20 kilometres south-west of Perth. From here the electorate extends only a short distance upriver to Bicton, depriving it of strong Liberal waterfront territory further east, instead stretching southwards through Spearwood and Coogee to Henderson, and south-west to Jandakot and Banjup. The electorate has existed since federation but was a very different beast in the early days, when the entire metropolitan area was divided between Fremantle and Perth. John Curtin came to the seat in 1928 after unseating independent William Watson, who recovered the seat from Curtin in 1931 as the United Australia Party candidate. Curtin was back for good in 1934, although he survived by only 641 votes in 1940. In July 1945 he became the second Prime Minister to die in office, and was succeeded at a by-election by Kim Beazley Senior. The seat has remained a home for high-profile Labor figures since, passing to future Keating government Treasurer John Dawkins when Beazley retired in 1977, and to former Premier Carmen Lawrence when Dawkins quit in 1994. The margin has mostly been in double figures since the 1975 and 1977 disasters reduced it to less than 2 per cent, although it fell to 4.3 per cent in 1996. Lawrence is retiring at the coming election after a disappointing career in federal politics, and the seat appears set to pass to United Nations human rights lawyer Melissa Parke. | |