Bass

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Marginal Liberal, 2.6%

Bass is a semi-urban/provincial seat centred on Launceston and including the towns of George Town, Bridport, Scottsdale and Lilydale, plus Flinders Island. Liberal Michael Ferguson won Bass in 2004. The seat was created in 1903 and has changed hands fairly regularly. Gough Whitlam’s deputy prime minister Lance Barnard held Bass from 1954 to 1975, but since then it has been a Liberal seat more often than not. Michelle O’Byrne held it most recently for Labor, from 1998 to 2004.

Labor’s loss of Bass in 2004 was generally attributed to its forests policy, even though it is a largely urban seat and the adverse swing of 4.7 per cent was noticeably less than in the neighbouring seat of Braddon. For some time now this has been the strongest Liberal area in the state, although Tasmanian seats are hard to call. The Tasmanian component of national opinion polls is usually too small to be meaningful, making it hard to say how strong the prospects might be for Labor’s candidate, Jodie Campbell. Still, Bass's margin is less than the uniform swing Labor needs to win government.

Declared Candidates

• Jodie Campbell, Australian Labor Party 
• Ixa De Haan, Family First 
• Michael Ferguson, Liberal Party 
• Tom Millen, Greens
  
• Adrian Watts, Citizens Electoral Council
  

2 PARTY PREFERRED BOOTH SWINGS 2004 ELECTION

OTHER TASMANIAN MARGINALS

 

Braddon

 

FULL LIST OF MARGINALS