THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

DONCASTER
Liberal 0.8%

Doncaster covers suburbs in Melbourne's middle east, from Doncaster itself east to Donvale. It has had two Liberal members since its creation in 1976 – Morris Williams until 1988, and Victor Perton thereafter. Perton came within 269 votes of an unprecendented defeat in 2002 despite polling 48.0 per cent on the primary vote, preference leakage from the Greens' 8.7 per cent ultimately getting him over the line. Perton announced his retirement in February, which was widely seen as a blow for the shaky leadership of Robert Doyle, of which Perton had been a strong supporter. Michael Bachelard reported in The Australian that "some colleagues" had said his decision was partly motivated by fear of losing his seat. The ensuing Liberal preselection was won by Mary Wooldridge (left), head of the Foundation for Young Australians, former adviser to federal Industry Minister Nick Minchin and sister of former Health Minister Michael Wooldridge. The most fancied of Wooldridge's four rivals was Michael Brennan, a current adviser to Minchin, but Wooldridge reportedly prevailed with more than 50 per cent of the vote. Labor's candidate is Lidia Argondizzo (right), who was elected to the upper house province of Templestowe in 2002. A member of the Socialist Left faction, Argondizzo drew one of the short straws resulting from the reduction in upper house numbers from 44 to 40, failing to win a competitive position for the corresponding new upper house region of Eastern Metropolitan.

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 Doncaster and Box Hill. 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