THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

MOUNT DRUITT
Labor 26.8%

Mount Druitt covers suburbs about 30 kilometres due west of Sydney, from Colyton north to Hassall Grove. Along with Pittwater, it is the only seat to have been unaffected by the redistribution. The seat was created in 1971, abolished in 1981 and recreated in 1991, and has been held at all times by Labor. Richard Amery (right) has been the member since 1991, having previously held Riverstone. His future at that time was the subject of a dispute between the Left faction, which wished for him to stay put in Riverstone after the redistribution cut the margin from 7.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent, and his own Right faction, which wanted him to take the secure Mount Druitt and have Riverstone go to Pam Allan, a Left member whose safe seat of Wentworthville had been abolished. This plan ruffled feathers because it put a female sitting member in jeopardy. The situation was defused when Blacktown MP John Aquilina agreed to contest Riverstone and make his own safe seat available to Allan.

Amery became Agriculture Minister with the election of the Carr government in 1995, and emerged over time as a figurehead of the Right sub-faction known as the "Troglodytes". This group's eclipse by the rival "Terrigals" has since worked against him on a number of occasions, at times putting his preselection in doubt. Terrigals member Paul Gibson mounted a challenge to Amery after his position in his existing seat of Londonderry was weakened when branch stacking charges led to the closure of two branches under his control. Gibson had reportedly been promised a safe seat due to his backing from the powerful National Union of Workers and capacity to raise funds from the hotel industry. The impasse was resolved by a deal which compelled Gibson to settle for his current seat of Blacktown, with Pam Allan returning to her recreated but less safe seat of Wentworthville (the name of which is changing to Toongabbie at the current election).

Amery was dumped from the ministry after the 2003 election when he lost the support of Bob Carr, who wanted him to make way for new blood. An attempt to marshall his factional forces in defiance of Carr failed, and he was defeated in the caucus ballot. In September 2006, Simon Benson of the Daily Telegraph reported speculation from "sources" that Amery was "in the firing line" when Morris Iemma gave party state secretary Mark Arbib a list of seats he wanted "sorted out". A preselection challenger emerged in the shape of Tim Shelton, a tow truck driver and Australian Workers Union activist. A Labor source quoted in the Mt Druitt/St Marys Standard said this was part of a plan by Blacktown councillor Stephen Bali to dislodge Roger Price, the federal member for Chifley and an ally of Amery's. The source also said that the party's hierarchy had rallied in support of Amery, who easily prevailed in the preselection vote by 74 votes to 11.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain