THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

BANKSTOWN
Labor 26.4%

The electorate of Bankstown is centred 15 kilometres west of the Sydney city centre, extending from Bankstown itself west to Bass Hill and east to Punchbowl. It has been held by Labor since its creation in 1927, the inaugural member being James McGirr, Premier from 1947 to 1952. The electorate has been significantly redrawn in the redistribution, which has shaved 2.2 per cent from the ample Labor margin. In the west, it has gained an area around Bass Hill and Georges Hall, which adds 7000 voters from East Hills and 5000 from Fairfield. In the east, nearly 10,000 voters have been transferred to Lakemba, with a further 2500 going to Strathfield. The northern boundary with Auburn, which formerly ran south-west to north-east along the Hume Highway, now runs west to east along Brunker Road, adding 7000 voters in Yagoona and removing 4300 in Greenacre. In the south, 2000 voters in Condell Park have been transferred to East Hills.

Bankstown has been held since 1999 by Labor's Tony Stewart (right), who entered parliament as member for Lakemba in 1995. His change of electorates followed a complicated round of factional brawling brought on by the Carr government's dangerous decision to cut Legislative Assembly numbers from 99 to 93. This provoked a branch stacking war between the two rival Right sub-factions, Stewart's "Troglodytes" and the opposing "Terrigals", as members sought to shore up their strength in preparation for the redistribution. Linda Morris and Damien Murphy of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Stewart formed the 453-strong "Lakemba day branch" (one of three branches later abolished by the administrative committee) in response to a "recruiting drive" in neighbouring Hurstville, held by Terrigals member Morris Iemma and scheduled for abolition under the new boundaries. This fuelled further stacking in Bankstown, then held by Doug Shedden of the Troglodytes. A deal was eventually struck in which Stewart replaced the retiring Shedden and Iemma replaced Stewart in Lakemba, part of a broader arrangement in which Police Minister Paul Whelan was forced to contest the Liberal-held seat of Strathfield after his own seat of Ashfield was abolished.

Stewart's preselection for Lakemba at the 1995 election was similarly complicated. Then the deputy mayor of Canterbury and an official with the Federation of Industrial, Manufacturing and Engineering Employees, Stewart was ultimately chosen to replace the retiring Wes Davoren. There had been reports that the seat might be used as a haven for Paul Whelan, then the Shadow Attorney-General, who had lost the numbers in his seat of Ashfield after local branches fell to the Left. Paola Totaro of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that this could not be accomplished because Lakemba had been promised to Stewart, partly because the FIMEE had "contributed more than $1 million to the rescue plans for the ALP's indebted Sussex Street property". Whelan's position in Ashfield was ultimately secured by a divisive intervention from the Right-controlled administrative committee, thwarting the designs of Left faction hopeful Carmel Tebbutt (later to enter the Legislative Council in 1998 and become member for Marrickville in 2005).

Other excitements involving Stewart have included two arson attacks on his campaign office in the lead-up to the 1999 election, and the firing of seven shots into a Lakemba house which police believed were intended for one of his supporters. The Sydney Morning Herald reported at the time that Stewart had "crafted a profile as a no-nonsense anti-gang and anti-drugs crusader and vocal supporter of zero-tolerance policing policies". His parliamentary CV is rather less interesting; he became a parliamentary secretary after the 1999 election, serving in the police and utilities portfolios until September 2006. He was then compelled to stand aside after losing his drivers' licence for a third time after blowing 0.06 at a breath test.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain