The Poll Bludger - Australian State and Federal Elections

NEDLANDS Liberal 10.1%*
Upper house region: North Metropolitan Federal division: Curtin * Sue Walker resigned from the Liberal Party 8/2/2008
	COLIN COCHRANE Labor BILL MARMION Liberal (bottom) BRIAN LANGENBERG Family First LEE HEMSLEY Greens GAIL FORDER Christian Democratic Party SUE WALKER Independent (top)

Nedlands covers well-heeled areas west of the city, including riverside Dalkeith and Crawley (home to the University of Western Australia campus and the Royal Perth Yacht Club) along with Shenton Park and Subiaco to the north. The redistribution has moved 5500 voters in Wembley to Churchlands and 1300 in West Perth (along with Kings Park) to Perth, while 1400 voters in Floreat have been gained from Cottesloe. This has boosted the Liberal margin from 8.4 per cent to 10.1 per cent, but the party has not held the seat since sitting member Sue Walker moved to the cross-benches in February. A former crown prosecutor, Walker came to the seat shortly after the 2001 election when her predecessor Richard Court quit politics after leading his two-term government to defeat. Court in turn succeeded his father Sir Charles Court as member in 1982, following his retirement as Premier. The by-election which brought Walker to parliament came close to producing a remarkable win for the Greens, who in the absence of a Labor candidate fell 3.4 per cent short after preferences from only 14.0 per cent of the primary vote.

Walker won instant promotion to the front bench and became Shadow Attorney-General in February 2004, but her alienation from the party became apparent in March 2006 when then-leader Matt Birney sacked her for publicly criticising him. It was at this time that Walker first floated the possibility of becoming an independent, but she returned as Shadow Attorney-General when Birney was dumped in favour of Paul Omodei a week later. The rift became permanent with the ascension of Troy Buswell in January 2008. Walker failed to attend the meeting that confirmed Buswell as leader, and became the talk of the town as she remained incommunicado for the following fortnight. This provoked a sharp editorial from The West Australian, which accused her of “disloyalty” and ”hypocrisy”. Her resignation from the party two days later left only one female Liberal in the lower house: Carine MP Katie Hodson-Thomas, who announced she was not contesting the election after complaining Buswell had made “inappropriate” remarks to her in front of a “large number” of male colleagues. Criticism of the party's gender balance was renewed when Bill Marmion, an engineer and former director of Richard Court's office, won Liberal preselection as the only male in a field of four candidates (the others being Alcoa government relations manager Libby Lyons, solicitor Jane Timmermanis and high school administrator Laura Longley).

A Westpoll survey conducted in the second last week of the campaign (presumably of 200 respondents) showed Sue Walker languishing in third place on 16 per cent compared with 47.5 per cent for Bill Marmion and 23 per cent Labor’s Colin Cochrane.

ASSESSMENT: Liberal notional retain