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THE POLL BLUDGER ISAACS
A seat called Isaacs was created in the Caulfield area in 1949, but this was effectively abolished in 1969 and the name given to a new seat covering the bayside south-east around Mordialloc. It currently extends from Mordialloc south to Carrum, and inland to Western Port Highway. The redistribution before the last election produced big exchanges of territory with neighbouring Holt, adding the Noble Park area in the the north-east and removing the outer urban centre of Cranbourne. The seat's ups and downs over the years can be explained by the presence or absence of Beaumaris, which has shifted back and forth between Isaacs and its more affluent northern neighbour Goldstein (formerly Balaclava). Labor's only win in the seat's first 11 years came at the 1974 election, when it made a valuable gain for a beleagured Whitlam government. The detachment of Beaumaris in 1977 helped David Charles win the seat for Labor in 1980, and he held on for two more terms when the area was brought back in 1984. The seat was one of nine in Victoria to fall to the Coalition at the 1990 election, when Rod Atkinson won the seat for the Liberals upon Charles's retirement. Atkinson went on to fall victim of the 1996 redistribution in which Isaacs again lost Beaumaris, moving south along the bay into Chelsea and inland to Cranbourne, delivering Labor's Greg Wilton a rare win for the party at that election. Wilton's career ended in tragic circumstances in 2000 when he committed suicide amid widely publicised domestic troubles. This did much to embitter Wilton's friend Mark Latham against Kim Beazley, whom Latham accused of failing to support Wilton during his period of crisis. Ann Corcoran was elected as the new Labor member at the by-election following Wilton's death, which the Liberals did not contest. Corcoran went on to suffer swings of 3.6 per cent in 2001 and 5.1 per cent in 2004, pushing the seat deep into the marginal zone despite the 3.8 per cent boost she received at the redistribution. | |