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THE POLL BLUDGER GOLDSTEIN
Created in 1984 in place of the abolished electorate of Balaclava, Goldstein takes in plush inner Melbourne bayside suburbs Brighton and Black Rock. Balaclava and then Goldstein were held by Fraser Government minister and arch-wet Ian Macphee, whose dumping in favour of "new right" intellectual figurehead David Kemp going into the 1990 election had a lot to do with John Howard losing the party leadership in 1989. Kemp made a belated decision to retire in July 2004 and was promptly relieved of his portfolio responsibilities. He was succeded by former Liberal federal director Andrew Robb, who had long been spoken of in relation to safe seats in New South Wales, his home for the past two decades. Robb hailed from Victoria originally, having been raised in a large working-class Catholic family that supported the Democratic Labor Party. He came to the Liberal Party via student politics and a job at the newly established and soon-to-be hugely influential National Farmers Federation, of which he became executive director in 1985. His role as federal director covered the 1990, 1993 and 1996 federal elections, and he went on to set up the successful marketing company Acxiom for Kerry Packer. | |