THE POLL BLUDGER
Western Australian Legislative Assembly Election 2008

BASSENDEAN Labor 14.8%
Upper house region: East Metropolitan Federal division: Perth
	PAUL MEWHOR Christian Democratic Party BENJAMIN SMITH Liberal JENNIE CARTER Greens MARTIN WHITELY Labor (top)

The electorate of Bassendean was created at the 1996 election, the suburb having been previously covered by Swan, Morley-Swan and Morley. The one-vote one-value redistribution has neatly brought the electorate down to its required size by transferring the thinly populated outskirts of the Swan Valley and Caversham to the new seat of West Swan, boosting Labor's margin by 1.1 per cent. Former Trade and State Development Minister Clive Brown held the seat from 1996, having previously been the member for Morley. His retirement in 2005 sparked a complicated preselection battle which ended with the nomination of Martin Whitely, whose seat of Roleystone had been abolished. The seat had originally loomed as a showdown between upper house MP Sue Ellery, backed by Jim McGinty and the Left, and state party treasurer Alistair Jones, whom The West Australian reported had won support from the Old Right and Centre after breaking from the Left. Whitely meanwhile was planning a move against Sheila McHale of the LHMWU Left in Kenwick. The situation was resolved in June 2004 when the party's national executive agreed to Geoff Gallop's request that it intervene to protect all sitting members. Whitely emerged from the episode alienated from his AMWU Left faction, and associated himself with the Labor Reform Forum of mostly unaligned members which emerged in response to the Corruption and Crime Commission's revelations in 2007. It was expected Whitely would be elbowed aside at the coming election to accommodate Premier's pick Chris Tallentire, director of the Conservation Council of WA, but he was saved when Sheila McHale's retirement announcement in March allowed Tallentire to be accommodated in Gosnells.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain