THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

TARNEIT
Labor 17.4%

Tarneit covers a seven kilometre stretch of the bayside west of the city and stretches 20 kilometres inland, through Hoppers Crossing and Werribee. Its name was changed from Werribee at the redistribution before the 2002 election; given that the Werribee River forms its western boundary, and the suburb of that name is still located centrally in the electorate, that might be thought a bit of a puzzle. Werribee was won by the Liberals when it was created at the 1976 election, but it fell to Labor in 1979 and stayed with them thereafter. A 7.5 per cent swing upon the retirement of long-standing member Ken Coghill in 1996 reduced the margin to 0.8 per cent, but incoming member Mary Gillett performed strongly with swings of 10.7 per cent in 1999 and 6.4 per cent in 2002. This did not save her from being deposedin February this year by Tim Pallas (left), chief-of-staff to Premier Steve Bracks, whom Bracks had insisted be given a seat during preselection negotiations. Gillett had reportedly been considering retirement in any case and was easily defeated in the preselection vote; in March, Tanya Giles of the Herald-Sun quoted an MP accusing Gillett of making a token run because a higher superannuation payment would be available to her if she left the seat involuntarily. Another preselection nominee was Henry Barlow, a Wyndham councillor and colleague of Bracks, Pallas and Gillett in the Right faction. Barlow reportedly had enough support locally to potentially upset Pallas's applecart, but he was persuaded by Bracks to withdraw. Liberal candidate Mark Rose (right) is a police officer and Wyndham councillor.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain