THE POLL BLUDGER
Queensland Legislative Assembly Election 2006

IPSWICH WEST
Labor 9.4%

Ipswich West extends beyond the northern and western parts of Ipswich through about 20 kilometres of hinterland to the west. Labor's vote in the latter area struggled to crack 30 per cent at the last election, whereas the Ipswich booths recorded solid Labor majorities on the primary vote. The tendency of the smaller hinterland booths to report results quickly means early figures on election night can be misleading. Ipswich West has been won by Labor at each election since its creation in 1960, with two exceptions: at the 1974 landslide, when Albert Hales won it for the National Party, and in 1998, when One Nation's Jack Paff won narrowly after Nationals preferences put him ahead of Don Livingstone, the member since 1989. Paff quit One Nation in February 1999 and went into the 2001 election under the wing of the City-Country Alliance, polling a dismal 5.1 per cent. Livingstone recovered the seat he had lost in 1998 with a 7.3 per cent two-party margin over One Nation, and had a similarly easy victory in 2004 when Liberal candidate and long-standing Esk Shire mayor Jean Bray took second place. Livingstone survived the 1999 "Netbet" affair and became involved in last year's controversy surrounding his friend Robert Poole, the member for Gaven. A day after he accepted the brief to take care of Poole's electorate in his absence, Livingstone flew to Thailand to visit him without informing Beattie. His decision to retire came one day before an election announcement then widely known to be on its way, and the snap preselection was won by Wayne Wendt (left), an accountant who ran against Pauline Hanson in Blair at the 2001 federal election. Liberal candidate Sean Choat (right) is a project manager at TAFE. Neither candidate appears to have a terribly high profile, a situation the Labor campaign website makes no effort to correct (the photo above dates from the 2001 campaign).

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain