THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

PARRAMATTA
Labor 13.6%

The town centre of Parramatta is at the far southern end of an electorate that extends west to Wentworthville, east to Ermington and north to Telopea. The redistribution has added 4500 voters in and around Wentworthville in the west (hence the electorate of Wentworthville being renamed Toongabbie). This has been counterbalanced by the loss of 5000 voters to Granville in the south. The electorate has existed without interruption since the establishment of the New South Wales parliament in 1856, and it provided Jack Lang with a home when it was a five-member district in the proportional representation years from 1920 to 1927. It was otherwise a conservative electorate until 1953, having only been won by Labor as a one-member seat in 1930. Since then, it has only been lost by Labor with the defeat of the Unsworth government in 1988, when John Books defeated Labor incumbent Barry Wilde by 0.5 per cent. Labor's campaign to recover the seat in 1991 began unpromisingly when candidate John Haines was dumped two months out from the election, after members of the rival Left faction put it about that he had bought a home unit for below the market price after helping it get planning approval in his capacity as a Parramatta councillor (Haines sued those responsible for defamation). He was replaced by local party worker Andrew Ziolkowski, who went on to win with help from a redistribution that reversed the seat's existing 0.5 per cent Liberal margin.

Ziolkowski died of cancer in April 1994 at the age of just 30, and was succeeded at the ensuing by-election by his widow Gabrielle Harrison. Harrison picked up a 9.5 per cent swing, partly assisted by Liberal candidate Wendy Jones's assertion that she should have been looking after her grieving family. Harrison was appointed Sports and Recreation Minister when the Carr government came to power, but her political fortunes declined thereafter and she was dumped from the ministry in 1999. She also lost support locally as branches in the electorate came under the control of the Left, prompting the Right-controlled head office to intervene by imposing an "N40" ballot giving the party administrative committee an equal say in preselection with local branches. At around this time, Harrison's former secretary Anne Stonham sued her for damages on the grounds that she had been overworked, and told the NSW Industrial Commission that Harrison kept names and pictures of adversaries in a locket around her neck. There was also talk that the Right was losing patience with the "un-cooperative" Harrison and wished to have her replaced. Harrison resolved the problem by announcing her intention to retire a few months before the 2003 election.

The front-runner to replace Harrison was David Borger, Parramatta lord mayor and unsuccessful candidate for the federal seat of Parramatta in 2001, who had the backing of Bob Carr. However, Paola Totaro of the Sydney Morning Herald reported that Borger queered the deal by refusing to join the Right, despite an alleged incentive of a fast-track into the ministry. This prompted the Right to use the N40 ballot to install Tanya Gadiel (above), policy adviser to factional chieftain Michael Costa. Michael Duffy wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald that Borger "mused briefly but publicly about running as an independent"; while this did not transpire, Borger did tell the Parramatta Advertiser that Lorraine Wearne, independent candidate and Parramatta councillor, could be seen as "a safe house for Labor voters who are upset about what happened to me". This prompted nine Parramatta branch members including president Phil Russo to bring charges of disloyalty against Borger with a view to having him expelled from the party.

The matter did not end there, as the seat was again at the centre of a complicated tussle during preselections for the current election. Laurie Ferguson, Left faction heavyweight and federal member for Reid, wished for Gadiel to make way for Borger by instead contesting Toongabbie, where it was hoped sitting member Pam Allan might be persuaded to retire (which did eventually transpire). Ferguson also wished for the retiring Kim Yeadon to be replaced in Granville by Jim Lloyd of the Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Workers Union, a key component of his "soft Left" faction. These machinations were thwarted when Morris Iemma enlisted the national executive to resolve preselections in these and two other seats, with the effect that Gadiel will stay put in Parramatta, Borger will go to Granville and Toongabbie will go to one of Iemma's staffers, Nathan Reece.

The Liberal candidate is Parramatta councillor John Chedid (left), who won a preselection vote 54 votes to 24 ahead of fellow councillor Andrew Wilson. In July 2006, Labor internal polling leaked to Channel Nine suggested they were likely to lose.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain