THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

YUROKE
Labor 22.9%

Yuroke is located in Melbourne's northern outskirts, from Tullamarine and Melbourne Airport through Greenvale to Yuroke and Craigieburn and beyond. It was created at the 2002 election upon the abolition of Tullamarine, which had been won narrowly for the Liberals by combative radio personality Bernie Finn upon its creation in 1992. Labor's Liz Beattie (left) defeated Finn with a 7.0 per cent swing in 1999; the creation of the new electorate added 5.3 per cent to her margin, to which she added a further 13.7 per cent swing at the 2002 election. A member of the Socialist Left faction, Beattie was made a parliamentary secretary in 2002, first for the tourism, sport and Commonwealth Games portfolios and then for education following that year's election. Andrew Landeryou reports that some in Beattie's Socialist Left faction wanted her to move to the upper house to make way for Hume councillor Mohamad Abbouche, whom the faction wished to recruit from Labor Unity (to which he had earlier defected from the Left in 2004) with the promise of a safe lower house seat, so his numbers could protect Maria Vamvakinou in the federal seat of Calwell. Abbouche was instead persuaded to accept a position on the upper house ticket for Western Metropolitan, but this was scuttled by the opposition of Steve Bracks. The Liberals originally nominated Wally Rogers, retired butcher and former union official, but he withdrew in early October due to ill health. He has been replaced by Bernie Finn's wife, Catherine Finn (right), who works as a nurse.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain