THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

MOUNT WAVERLEY
Labor 2.3%

Located 20 kilometres east of the city, Mount Waverley was created at the 2002 election upon the abolition of Glen Waverley, which had been safely held for the Liberals by Ross Smith since its creation in 1985. The new electorate had a seemingly secure notional Liberal margin of 9.1 per cent, and Shadow Health Minister Ron Wilson sought to find refuge here following the abolition of his existing seat of Bennetswood. But with Smith taking his personal vote into retirement, the swing blew out to 11.3 per cent and Labor's Maxine Morand (left) emerged a surprise winner. Morand had been a nurse and an adviser to Health Minister John Thwaites, and remains identified with his Independents faction. The Liberal candidate is Michael Gidley (right), a 30-year-old accountant and former Young Liberal president. Gidley who won preselection after agreeing to call off his contentious challenge against Shadow Police Minister Kim Wells in the neighbouring seat of Scoresby. During the course of this struggle, the ABC's Stateline program received a leaked letter to party headquarters from Wells supporters who accused Gidley of "disgraceful, long-term and ongoing branch-stacking activities". Gidley agreed to withdraw in exchange for support from then-party leader Robert Doyle and state party president Helen Kroger for his Mount Waverley bid; this they were able to offer because Russell Hannan, Liberal Party treasurer and former Monash mayor, agreed to abandon his existing claim to the seat. Doyle was roundly criticised for writing a reference endorsing Gidley's nomination and was very nearly humiliated by the outcome of the preselection vote, in which Gidley defeated rival Maree Davenport (who as Maree Luckins had been member for the upper house province of Waverley from 1996 to 2002) by just 28 votes to 25.

The big ticket items in the Liberals' $1.7 billion health policy unveiled in the second week of the campaign included a $60 million expansion of the Clayton campus of the Monash Medical Centre, located over the border in the safe Labor seat of Clayton.

ASSESSMENT: LIBERAL GAIN