THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

BOX HILL
Liberal 1.1%

The suburb of Box Hill is 15 kilometres east of the Melbourne CBD, and an electorate bearing the name has existed since 1945. The seat changed hands along with government to the Liberals in 1955, to Labor in 1982 and back to the Liberals in 1992. Its bellwether status came to end when the swing at the 1999 election was limited to 2.7 per cent, which left the Liberals with enough of a buffer to survive a further 6.5 per cent swing in 2002. Robert Clark (left) has been the member since 1992, having earlier spent a term as member for the abolished Balwyn. He has served as a parliamentary secretary during the Kennett government and as an opposition front-bencher since the 1999 election defeat, first in the planning and WorkCover portfolios and as Shadow Treasurer since September 2001. The latter role was briefly lost to Robert Dean after Robert Doyle's leadership coup against Denis Napthine in August 2002, but recovered when Dean was unable to contest the 2002 election because he had been removed from the election roll. Labor's candidate is Whitehorse councillor Robert Chong (right), who also ran in 2002.

In the second week of the campaign, the Liberals promised to spend $35 million extending the number 48 tram route a further four kilometres from Balwyn North to Doncaster – sound policy no doubt, but of benefit only to the already Liberal-held electorates of Box Hill and Doncaster. Labor declined to match the promise; Michael Howard of the Manningham Leader reported a claim from Transport Minister Peter Batchelor that the line would "cause traffic congestion on Doncaster Road, would be unable to make regular stops due to the road’s gradient and would actually cost as much as $60 million to construct". The latter claim has been rejected by the Public Transport Users’ Association. The government has also rejected local calls for a train line to be built to Doncaster, instead having committed to an $80 million upgrade of bus services.

ASSESSMENT: Liberal retain