THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

MACQUARIE FIELDS
Labor 23.5%

The electorate of Macquarie Fields covers unfashionable suburbs 30 kilometres south-west of the centre of Sydney, from Macquarie Fields itself north to Casula and west to Denham Court and Austral. The redistribution has squared off its north-eastern boundary through an expansion to Hoxton Park Road, adding more than 7000 voters around Lurnea from Liverpool. At the opposite end, 16,000 voters at Ingleburn and Minto have been transferred to Campbelltown, with a further 1600 in Raby going to Camden. The seat was created in 1988 in place of abolished Ingleburn, and renamed Moorebank between 1991 and 1999. Ingleburn was held for its seven-year existence by Stan Knowles, who carried over as member for Macquarie Fields until his mid-term retirement in 1990. He was succeeded at a by-election by his son Craig Knowles, who in time was groomed for the leadership while serving as Health Minister and Transport Minister in the Carr government. Since neither area proved a notable success for the government, his gloss diminished over time and he was not rated as a front-runner when Bob Carr called it quits. Facing demotion under Morris Iemma, Knowles instead opted to join Carr and Treasurer Andrew Refshauge in retiring in August 2005, thereby initiating three simultaneous by-elections on September 17.

Labor's nomination went to Steven Chaytor, a Campbelltown councillor and senior adviser to Gough Whitlam from 1999 to 2005, after council colleague Aaron Rule declined to run. Chaytor was the only one of Labor's three candidates at the simultaneous by-elections to face opposition for a Liberal, that being Nola Fraser (right), a nurse who had claimed Craig Knowles threatened and intimidated her after she raised concerns about unnecessary deaths at a local hospital. A 12.4 per cent swing did not stop Chaytor from securing a comfortable victory, but his parliamentary career has proven to be short-lived. In January he was expelled from the ALP after being convicted of assaulting his girlfriend, the magistrate finding he had pushed and kicked her (his defence was that he was attempting to prevent her from harming herself). In his place Labor swiftly installed paediatrician Andrew McDonald (left), perhaps with an eye to countering the impact of Nola Fraser's decision to run again for the Liberal Party.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain