THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

CESSNOCK
Labor 19.1%

The Hunter Valley town of Cessnock lies at the centre of an electorate covering 1500 square kilometres, from the outskirts of Newcastle at Edgeworth west to Wollombi Brook. The redistribution has transferred 12,000 voters in Singleton to Upper Hunter in the north in exchange for built-up areas nearer the coast, around Black Hill (adding 8500 voters from Wallsend), Barnsley (4000 voters from Lake Macquarie) and Beresfield (1700 voters from Maitland). The changes have boosted the Labor margin by 3.6 per cent.

Outside of the interruption of proportional representation between 1920 and 1927, Labor has won Cessnock at every election since its creation in 1913, with the exception of Stan Neilly's defeat by Liberal candidate Bob Roberts in 1988. Neilly recovered the seat in 1991 and held it until his retirement in 1999. The ensuing preselection saw local milk vendor and Cessnock councillor Kerry Hickey (right) enjoy a surprise victory over Kate Brassil, a staffer to federal Hunter MP Joel Fitzgibbon. The state party's Right-controlled head office subsequently initiated a process to have Hickey disqualified on the grounds that he was not a trade union member, to which Hickey protested that he was active in the Milk Vendors Association, which had been refused affiliation by the Transport Workers Union. As Hickey himself put it, "Bob Carr was assured that he would have a female candidate and I understand his response was, 'I ended up with a milkman'". These moves met resistance from the Left and from Stan Neilly, who said he would come out of retirement and nominate again if Hickey was disqualified. Cessnock mayor Maree Callaghan also backed Hickey and threatened to run if he was denied. The situation was resolved when Brassil agreed to withdraw.

From humble origins, Hickey rose to the front bench after the 2003 election when a group of "soft Left" Hunter MPs threatened a revolt if they were not represented in cabinet. Paola Totaro of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the support of this group was needed to shore up the position of Deputy Premier and Left leader Andrew Refshauge, prompting the faction to make room for Hickey by dumping Information Minister Kim Yeadon. Hickey was accommodated in the mineral resources portfolio before moving to local government in August 2005. Like far too many Labor MPs, Hickey found himself at the centre of controversy in late 2006. In October he was caught driving at 140kmh in a 100kmh zone in his ministerial car, which turned out to be his fourth speeding offence since 2002. The following month, Peter Debnam called for him to be sacked when it transpired he had used office budgets to pay a $70 parking fine.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain