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THE POLL BLUDGER THROSBY
Throsby covers the coast south of Sydney from Port Kembla to Shellharbour, and inland to take in Lake Illawarra and Albion Park. It was created in 1984 from territory previously covered by Cunningham and Macarthur. The redistribution has added a large but lightly populated area around Jamberoo from Gilmore in the south and removed Farmborough Heights to Cunningham in the north, each exchange accounting for about 6000 voters. It has at all times been safe for Labor, especially since 1993 when the seat lost the inland areas of Mittagong, Bowral and Moss Vale and became wholly oriented in the Illawarra. The seat was held by Colin Hollis until 2001, and former ACTU president Jennie George thereafter. George won preselection through the party's contentious N40 rule which allows the state executive to take matters out of the hands of local branches, thereby thwarting Sharon Bird who would have won a vote. Bird has since twice been preselected for neighbouring Cunningham, with the help of the N40 rule on the first occasion, when she dropped the seat to the Greens at a by-election in 2002. | |