Mark101
Registered: 06/09/08
Posts: 1
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Reply with quote | #1 |
Created in 1950, Lake Macquarie has had only three members since, all representing the Labor Party. The current MP won the seat in 1991 after succeeding his father Merv, who had held the seat since 1969. The only time Labor came close to losing this seat was in 1988 when two local Independents polling strongly, but a failure to swap preferences preventing one of them winning. The electorate contains a large Seventh-Day Adventist community who for religious reasons do not vote on Saturday. As a result, there is an unusually large pre-poll vote which heavily favours the Liberal Party.
A safe Labor seat, but one that will be much more interesting with the decision of Lake Macquarie Mayor Greg Piper to nominate as an Independent. Piper is teaming himself with Maitland's Peter Blackmore and Newcastle's John Tate, putting themselves forward as an Independent force in opposition to Labor, playing on local views that the Labor Party takes its traditional grip on the Hunter Valley for granted.
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