The Poll Bludger - Australian State and Federal Elections

JANDAKOT Labor 3.6%
New electorate Upper house region: South Metropolitan Federal divisions: Fremantle/Tangney
	DAMON FOWLER Family First SERENA BREADMORE Greens ANNE WOOD Labor (top) BILL HEGGERS Christian Democratic Party JOE FRANCIS Liberal (bottom)

Among the new metropolitan seats created by the one-vote one-value redistribution is a reincarnation of Jandakot, which earlier existed in place of Murdoch between 1989 and 1996. Most of the area of the new electorate comes from abolished Serpentine-Jarrahdale, but this is dominated by Jandakot Airport and its lightly populated surrounds. The more thickly populated northern end comes from Murdoch (the remainder of which forms the basis of Bateman), Cockburn, Willagee and Riverton. The Willagee and Cockburn territory around South Lake gives the seat a slight notional Labor margin, whereas the old electorate of Jandakot was held by the Liberals throughout its short life. Labor is expecting to reap dividends in the seat from the construction of the Fiona Stanley Hospital, located in Murdoch, and the Perth to Mandurah rail line, which runs through the electorate.

Labor's candidate is Anne Wood of the Right faction, who has worked for MPs Mark McGowan, Alannah MacTiernan, Tom Stephens and Norm Marlborough. The West Australian reports Wood was nominated after the withdrawal of Centre faction rival Daron Smith, a policy adviser with Government Enterprises Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich (Smith also had his eye on Kwinana). The seat was also mentioned as a fallback option for Alan Carpenter's chief-of-staff Rita Saffioti if she proved unsuccessful in her bid for West Swan.

On the Liberal side, it was looking likely that Murdoch MP Trevor Sprigg would have to settle for the seat so that Bateman could go to Anthony Jarvis, 33-year-old lawyer and chairman of the party's policy committee. However, Jarvis was not an entrant for the Murdoch preselection which followed Sprigg's sudden death in January 2008, and new member Christian Porter confirmed his claim to the safer seat with his immediate promotion to Shadow Attorney-General. The party's initial nominee for Jandakot was the little-known Matthew Norman, but he withdrew shortly after the Troy Buswell chair-sniffing story broke in early May citing “personal and family reasons”. His replacement is Joe Francis, a naval officer who formerly worked “as a political staffer for various State and Federal Members of Parliament from 1994 to 1999”.

On the first weekend of the campaign, Joe Spagnolo of The Sunday Times reported that Labor polling conducted the day after Troy Buswell's resignation showed Labor leading 56-44 in Jandakot. Two weeks later it was one of five seats Labor was said to be of “concern”, along with Kingsley, Ocean Reef, Swan Hills and Riverton.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain