THE POLL BLUDGER
New South Wales Legislative Assembly Election 2007

SYDNEY
Independent 15.0% versus Labor

Replacing abolished Bligh, the electorate of Sydney covers the harbour from Pyrmont west through the city centre to Rushcutters Bay, extending south to Chippendale, Strawberry Hills and Centennial Park. The name change has been prompted by the acquisition of the central business district and harbour shore as far west as Pyrmont from abolished Port Jackson (now renamed Balmain), accounting for nearly 11,000 voters. This has added an area with a strong Greens/independent inclination, whereas the counter-balancing losses are in areas that were relatively weak for Clover Moore in 2003. Traditional Labor territory in the south, including 7000 voters around Redfern East and 1700 at Darlington, have respectively been transferred to Heffron and Marrickville; in the east, 5000 voters in Liberal-leaning Woollahra have been transferred to Vaucluse.

The city centre has been in a series of Labor-held electorates since the end of proportional representation in 1927, all since abolished: King until 1973, Phillip until 1981, Elizabeth until 1988, McKell until 1991, and Port Jackson thereafter. Bligh was created in 1962 in place of abolished Woollahra, which since 1927 had filled the gap between the city-based electorate and Vaucluse on the coast. Labor's only wins in Woollahra and Bligh were in 1927, 1962 and 1981, but Bligh became more volatile as cuts in parliamentary numbers forced it to expand westwards into the inner city. Michael Yabsley recovered it for the Liberals as part of the party's improved performance in 1984 but was unable to enjoy Nick Greiner's election win in 1988, when independent candidate Clover Moore (left) finished ahead of Labor with 26.7 per cent of the vote and defeated Yabsley on preferences. Yabsley returned to parliament later in the year as the member for Vaucluse, where he was elected unopposed after the death of sitting member Ray Aston.

Moore had previously been an alderman on Sydney City Council and was rated the front-runner to become the next lord mayor, but the council was sacked by the Unsworth government and replaced with commissioners. She has been re-elected four times, her primary vote ranging from 36.3 per cent in 1995 to 43.7 per cent in 1991. Her narrowest victory was in 1995, when she finished 5.5 per cent ahead of the Liberal candidate after preferences. The 1991 result left Moore as one of three independents holding the balance of power, at first sustaining Nick Greiner's minority government in office. The three used their power to force Greiner's resignation when the Independent Commission Against Corruption ruled that the offer of a public service position to Liberal-turned-independent MP Terry Metherell amounted to corrupt conduct. The findings against Greiner were eventually overturned by the Supreme Court. When it appeared that Moore might again be in a balance of power position after the 1995 election, it was reported that the Labor Right believed another election would be preferable to governing with Moore's support. For their part, conservative members of the Coalition expressed concern at having a minority government susceptible to "blackmail" over issues of concern to Moore, such as gay law reform and protection of old-growth forests. The matter was resolved when late counting delivered Labor the seats it needed to govern with a one-seat majority.

The addition of parts of Redfern at the next redistribution, along with the decline in the Liberals' electoral fortunes, helped Labor finish second in 1999 and 2003, when Moore respectively scored 59.8 per cent and 64.7 per cent of the two-candidate preferred vote. The lord mayoralty of Sydney was added to her list of responsibilities in 2004 when she ran in protest against the government's sacking of the existing council and amalgamation of Sydney and South Sydney councils. This was widely seen as an effort to bring the strong Labor vote in South Sydney to bear in electing Michael Lee, former Keating government minister and federal member for Dobell. With ousted lord mayoral incumbent Lucy Turnbull declining to run, Moore enjoyed a landslide victory with more than double Lee's vote.

Labor's candidate is Linda Scott (top right), a psychologist and research officer for the NSW Crime Statistics and Research Bureau; the Liberals have nominated Edward Mandla (bottom left), an IT professional and former Australian Computer Society president. Also in the field is the deputy lord mayor, Chris Harris, who is running for the Greens (bottom right).

Clover Moore has been getting a hard time from The Australian's Imre Salusinszky. On March 5, Salusinszky reported Moore had potentially breached parliamentary guidelines by using her electorate allowance to "spruik achievements from her other role as Lord Mayor of Sydney". On March 21, she reportedly faced "a former campaign insider accusing her of hypocrisy over donations from property developers". In other inner-city news, an assault complaint brought by independent Malcolm Duncan against glamorous Liberal action man Edward Mandla was given way too much media coverage. Writing in the gay and lesbian newspaper SX, Sydney blogger Sam Butler described the avowedly gay-friendly Mandla as "powerfully built, with exfoliated and moisturised skin, distinguished grey hairs and a handsome smile ... an ideal 'Daddy' fantasy for many of the otherwise politically-ambivalent twinks residing in and around Stonewall". One wonders if the Stonewall twinks' ardour for older authority figures extends to Fred Nile; as with all other Liberal candidates, Mandla's how-to-vote card suggests voters might care to give him their second preference in the upper house.

ASSESSMENT: Independent retain