THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

PRAHRAN
Labor 4.4%

The electorate of Prahran covers inner city suburbs south-east of the city, with the river as its northern boundary. It produces a remarkable diversity of booth results; in the trendy areas of Prahran and St Kilda East, Labor's 2002 margins were in the order of 20 per cent, with the Greens' primary vote topping 20 per cent; in blue-ribbon Toorak to the east, the two-party margin was reversed and the Greens were in single figures. The electorate also juts into city apartment territory at Fawkner Park, which also has a high vote for the Greens but a low one for Labor. Prahran has existed in one form or another since 1889, and has frequently changed hands: before its win in 2002, Labor had held the seat from 1894 to 1897, 1920 to 1921, 1924 to 1932, 1945 to 1955 and 1979 to 1985. Prahran failed to swing at the 1999 election that dumped Jeff Kennett's government, but compensated with a decisive 9.2 per cent shift in 2002 that delivered victory to Labor candidate Tony Lupton (left), a barrister aligned with the Labor Unity (Right) faction. Former deputy lord mayor Clem Newton-Brown (right) won Liberal preselection in September 2005 over Karalee Tilvern, former Channel Seven news reporter (and even more former Perth work colleague of the Poll Bludger, although I don't expect she remembers me) and favoured candidate of then-party leader Robert Doyle. Peter Mickelburough of the Herald-Sun reported that Newton-Brown's win continued "a grassroots revolt by branch members that has seen the dominant Kroger-Costello camp routed in a raft of crucial preselections", and weakened Doyle's hold on the leadership.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain