The Poll Bludger - Australian State and Federal Elections

EYRE Liberal 14.9%
Replaces abolished electorate of Roe Upper house region: Mining and Pastoral Federal divisions: Kalgoorlie/O'Connor
	GRAHAM JACOBS Liberal (top) LINDA PARKER Greens ARTHUR EDWARD HARVEY Citizens Electoral Council JOHN KEOGH Labor SUZIE WILLIAMS Nationals (bottom)

The new seat of Eyre covers the state's south-eastern corner, taking in two major population sources: the coastal town of Esperance, and Kalgoorlie's twin town of Boulder. Between the two are the nickel mining town of Kambalda and the Eyre Highway terminus at Norseman; to the west are Ravensthorpe, which has recently arrested its long decline on the back of the resources boom, and the Great Eastern Highway town of Southern Cross. Eyre has the smallest “large district allowance” of any of the five remote and Mining and Pastoral region electorates, with an enrolment of 17,036 compared with a state average of 21,350. Esperance previously dominated the electorate of Roe, which was created in 1950 and changed hands from the Country Party to the Liberals in 1974 (when the former pursued an electorally disastrous state-level “National Alliance” with the Democratic Labor Party). It was abolished in 1983 and recreated at the 1989 election, when Liberal candidate Graham Jacobs was narrowly defeated by Ross Ainsworth of the Nationals. Jacobs returned to the field when Ainsworth retired 16 years later, having remained well known locally through his role as state president of the Rural Doctors Association, this time prevailing comfortably with 48.3 per cent of the vote.

Murchison-Eyre existed as an electorate from 1968 to 1989 and again from 2005, being superseded in the interim by Eyre. Murchison-Eyre was held by the Liberals during its first life, but Eyre presented Labor with favourable boundaries and was won in 1989 by Julian Grill, earlier member for abolished Yilgarn-Dundas and Esperance-Dundas (the Liberal member for Murchison-Eyre, Ross Lightfoot, took refuge in the upper house and later went to the Senate). Grill retired at the 2001 election, his political ambitions having been stymied by his WA Inc association, and he has more recently been a fixture in the news due to his lobbying partnership with Brian Burke. He was succeeded as member for Eyre and subsequently Murchison-Eyre by John Bowler, former ABC presenter and proprietor of the Golden Mail newspaper.

Bowler's association with Burke and especially Grill proved his downfall during the current term, with the Corruption and Crime Commission revealing in January 2007 he had provided them with confidential cabinet information. He was sacked as Resources Minister and expelled by the party a month later, but apparently remained popular enough that his plans to run as an independent were being taken seriously by local observers. However, the redistribution did Bowler a poor turn by integrating his own base in the southern Goldfields with strongly conservative Esperance, and he has declared his intention to instead contest Kalgoorlie so long as his “friend” Matt Birney stands by his decision to quit. Graham Jacobs has also received considerable publicity in recent times, moving the spill motion which Troy Buswell narrowly survived after the chair-sniffing story broke in late April. Six weeks later Jacobs pushed a second attempt in concert with upper house MP Anthony Fels, despite having failed to interest their prospective new leader Matt Birney, and he subsequently resigned his position as Shadow Environment Minister.

The Nationals have nominated Suzie Williams, a former Kalgoorlie councillor.

ASSESSMENT: Liberal retain