THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

MULGOA
Labor 16.6%

Mulgoa covers the rapidly growing outer western suburbs of Sydney to the south of Penrith, from Glenmore Park and Orchard Hills south through Mulgoa itself to Greendale and Badgerys Creek. The redistribution has added the latter areas from Camden, almost doubling the electorate's area, although only 3300 voters are affected. In the north, 2000 voters at Kingswood have been transferred to Penrith. The electorate first existed from 1988 until 1991, when it and neighbouring Minchinbury were replaced by Badgerys Creek and St Marys. The member in the earlier period was Tony Aquilina, who then moved to St Marys, while Minchinbury MP Anne Cohen won Badgerys Creek for the Liberals over Labor's Diane Beamer (right), Penrith councillor and former electorate officer to Hawke government Sport and Tourism Minister John Brown. Beamer became mayor in 1993 and was reportedly poised to win preselection for St Marys the following year, when Aquilina was compelled to resign over his management of the Henry Lawson Club and the fate of a cheque a constituent gave him to pass on to the Immigration Department. However, party hardheads insisted that Beamer run again in Badgerys Creek, believing her personal vote would help win a seat they considered crucial to their chances of winning the election. The astuteness of this judgement was demonstrated when Beamer defeated Cohen by 107 votes, thereby delivering Labor its one-seat majority.

The 1999 redistribution did Beamer a good turn by recreating Mulgoa, which included the northern part of her existing electorate along with safe Labor territory that had previously been in St Marys. After the 2003 election she won promotion to Fair Trading, Juvenile Justice and Western Sydney Minister and Assistant Planning Minister. The latter role brought her unwanted attention with the eruption of the Orange Grove scandal in 2004, in which a ruling made by Beamer led to the closure of a Liverpool shopping centre at a cost of about 200 jobs. This was of direct benefit to a nearby centre operated by Westfield, a major donor to the ALP. It was alleged that Beamer had been directed to make this decision by Bob Carr, who wished to do a favour for Westfield chairman Frank Lowy. Then-Liberal leader John Brogden produced a draft press release in parliament which appeared to indicate that Beamer's original intention had been to allow the centre to remain open. Beamer was relieved of her assistant planning and juvenile justice portfolios when Morris Iemma became Premier in August 2005, one week before she was cleared of wrongdoing by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Liberals have nominated Karen Chijoff, electorate officer to federal Lindsay MP Jackie Kelly.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain