THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

KOROROIT
Labor 27.1%

Covering suburbs 20 kilometres west of the city, Kororoit was created at the 2002 election out of territory from the abolished Sunshine and the redrawn Melton and Keilor. The inaugural member was Andre Haermeyer (right), who found a safe haven in the seat after having conducted his ministerial career from the electorally dicey Yan Yean. He first had to face down rival aspirant Tim Pallas, chief-of-staff to Steve Bracks and now candidate for Tarneit. An influential figure in the Labor Unity faction, Haermeyer was described by Ewin Hannan of The Age as "Steve Bracks's numbers man", who had "helped finish off John Brumby in early 1999, working the phone to convince his fellow state Labor MPs that Bracks should be elected party leader". Haermeyer was Shadow Police, Emergency and Corrective Services Minister through most of Labor's period in opposition in the 1990s and carried the portfolios over into government.

The police portfolio brought Haermeyer persistent grief through the early part of the current term, which saw the government forced to refund speeding fines due to possible faults with some of its cameras (revenue from which had quadrupled on the Bracks government's watch), and resisting calls for a royal commission into police corruption following the murder of underworld figures under police protection. Haermeyer also struggled with the fallout of his use of parliamentary privilege before the 2002 election to label the Liberal candidate for Yan Yean, Matthew Guy, a "liar and a thief". Guy was accused of telling the media "political opponents" had vandalised his car while making no such claim in his police complaint, and having once been picked up by police for stealing election signs. This sparked exchanges which make for unusually exciting Hansard reading (from page 805). When parliament next sat 12 days later, Haermeyer was compelled to make a personal explanation, accepting only that Guy had not been charged over the signs incident. The Liberals complained to the Ombudsman who eventually found there had been unauthorised access to Guy's police files three days before Haermeyer made his claims, and that the person responsible was the husband of Attorney-General Rob Hulls' personal assistant. While the Ombudsman accepted the latter's insistence he had not contacted Haermeyer's office about the matter, the issue continued to fester as other election candidates used freedom of information to uncover incidents of access to their police files. Haermeyer was demoted to the manufacturing and export, small business and financial services portfolios in January 2005, with police being taken by Lyndhurst MP Tim Holding.

Closer to home, a bitter battle over control of the local Deer Park branch broke out in 2004 between Haermeyer's faction and the rival Labor Alliance, which initially succeeded in installing Jeff O'Donnell as branch president. O'Donnell and three other Alliance members claimed to have received bullets with their names scrawled on them in their letterboxes, while O'Donnell said he was told to "get out of the ALP" by a man who assaulted him with an iron bar. It was also claimed Haermeyer's wife Tonya Stevens, an industrial officer with the Australian Workers Union, had punched one factional rival and threatened to blow up the house of another during a branch meeting. Stevens denied the allegations and threatened those responsible with legal action. A tape of the meeting that made it into the hands of The Age turned up an expletive-laden exchange, but reporter William Birnbauer wrote that "because of the disorder, it is difficult to discern exactly what was said and who said it". For her part, Stevens said she too feared for her safety as a result of the factional brawling.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain