THE POLL BLUDGER
Western Australian Legislative Assembly Election 2008

FORRESTFIELD Labor 4.5%
New electorate Upper house region: East Metropolitan Federal division: Hasluck
	OWEN DAVIES Greens NATHAN MORTON Liberal (bottom) ANDREW WADDELL Labor (top) JOEL HAMMEN Christian Democratic Party LISA SALADINE Family First

The new eastern suburbs seat of Forrestfield takes slightly under half of its voters from the dramatically redrawn Darling Range. The remainder come mostly from Belmont and abolished Kenwick, along with a small number from Midland. The electorate covers three distinct areas: High Wycombe and Maida Vale in the north, Forrestfield and Wattle Grove in the centre and Kenwick in the south. All but the latter are marginal territory, with Kenwick pushing the seat into the Labor column. Labor's candidate is Andrew Waddell, a former official with the Centre faction Transport Workers Union who has worked since 1999 with the Western Australian Industrial Relations Commission. Waddell ran for Curtin at the 1998 federal election and unsuccessfully contested preselection for Cockburn ahead of the 2001 state election. His failure to win on the latter occasion was part of the motivation behind TWU secretary Jim McGiveron's infamous assault on Girrawheen MP Ted Cunningham, who had backed successful Left nominee Fran Logan. Robert Taylor of the West Australian reported that Waddell won the Forrestfield preselection with the backing of the Shop Distributive and Allies Employees Association, associated in Western Australia with the “Old Right”. Others said by The West's Jessica Strutt to have “expressed interest” were Tony Buti, “a friend of Planning and Infrastructure Minister Alannah MacTiernan”, and Mia Kriznic of the Centre faction. The Liberal candidate is Nathan Morton, a locally resident school teacher.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain