THE POLL BLUDGER
Western Australian Legislative Assembly Election 2008

NOLLAMARA Labor 19.3%
New electorate Upper house region: East Metropolitan Federal divisions: Stirling/Cowan
	GLEN GEORGE Greens JANINE FREEMAN Labor (top) MARTY FIRTH Christian Democratic Party TRENT CHARLTON-MAUGHAN Liberal

The one-vote one-value redistribution has recreated the northern suburbs seat of Nollamara, which previously existed between 1989 and 2005. It was held comfortably for Labor throughout that period by front-bencher John Kobelke, now member for Balcatta. The newly constituted electorate follows a peculiar inverse L-shape with Alexander Heights, Koondoola and Mirrabooka on the northern leg (taken from Girrawheen and providing the electorate with slightly under half its voters), and Westminster and Nollamara to the south and west (from abolished Yokine and ongoing Balcatta, respectively providing 41 per cent and 11 per cent of the voters). With Yokine divided between Nollamara and Mount Lawley it might have been expected that one or the other would provide a home for its sitting Labor member Bob Kucera. However, Kucera – factionally unaligned, 63 years old, and with his cabinet days behind him – failed to find support for either. A deal after the redistribution between the Right and the LHMWU Left secured Nollamara for the latter's favoured candidate, former UnionsWA assistant secretary Janine Freeman, while Alan Carpenter saw that Mount Lawley was reserved for his hand-picked candidate Karen Brown. After vainly contesting the Mount Lawley preselection, Kucera quit the ALP and announced he would stand as an independent, most likely in Nollamara – which as a safe seat in Labor-versus-Liberal terms offers a better prospect for an independent Labor candidate.

ASSESSMENT: Labor retain