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THE POLL BLUDGER JAGAJAGA
Jagajaga covers suburbs in Melbourne's north-east, from Heidelberg and Ivanhoe out to North Warrandyte in the east, with the Yarra River as the southern boundary. It was created with the enlargement of parliament in 1984, in large part replacing abolished Diamond Valley. Diamond Valley helped usher the Whitlam government in and out of power, falling to Labor in 1972 and then being recovered by defeated Liberal member Neil Brown in 1975. Brown lost the seat to Labor's Peter Staples with the defeat of the Fraser government in 1983, returning as member for Menzies in 1984. Staples held Jagajaga from its creation until his retirement in 1996, watching the margin fall to 2.6 per cent in the Victorian anti-Labor backlash of 1990. He was succeeded by Jenny Macklin, who won by 2.6 per cent in 1996 and has held on with only slightly stronger margins since. Macklin rose to the position of deputy leader from after the 2001 election until Kim Beazley was deposed by Kevin Rudd in December 2006, making way for Julia Gillard. | |