THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

OXLEY
Nationals 9.9%

Oxley covers 100 kilometres of coast north of Port Macquarie and south of Coffs Harbour, from Nambucca Heads to Crescent Head. Further inland, it extends from Dorrigo in the north through Wauchope south to the Manning River. The redistribution has resulted in transfers of territory with its northern and southern coastal neighbours – in the case of Coffs Harbour, it loses 1800 voters in the coastal towns of Mylestrom and Urunga while gaining 5000 voters in the Shire of Bellingen further inland; from Port Macquarie, it loses 4000 voters in the outskirts of Wauchope and gains 1400 further south. The electorate was created as a three-member district when proportional representation was introduced in 1920, the name being retained when single-member electorates were reintroduced in 1927. It has never been held by Labor since the latter event, and last changed hands when the Country Party recovered it in 1965 upon the death of Liberal member Leslie Jordan, who had switched parties in 1959. The electorate included Port Macquarie until its temporary abolition with the short-lived expansion in parliamentary numbers between 1988 and 1991, when its territory was divided between the new seats of Port Macquarie and Manning. In that period Port Macquarie was held by the erstwhile member for Oxley, Bruce Jeffery, while Manning went to National Party colleague Wendy Machin, previously the member for abolished Gloucester. When Manning was abolished in 1991, Machin was accommodated in Port Macquarie and Jeffery moved back to the re-created Oxley. Jeffery retired in 1999 and was succeeded by employment agency manager Andrew Stoner (left), who was quickly promoted to the front bench after Port Macquarie MP Rob Oakeshott quit the party in March 2002, taking on the emergency services and sport and recreation portfolios. Stoner stood successfully for the Nationals leadership when George Souris stepped down after the 2003 election, defeating Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser seven votes to five. Labor candidate Stuart Holmes (right) is a "former Qantas aircraft maintenance engineer" from Nambucca Heads.

ASSESSMENT: Nationals retain