Lindsay
A Bugger of a Seat
Marginal Liberal, 2.9% (post-redistribution – previously 5.3%)
Lindsay is an outer suburban electorate that takes in the far western end of Sydney – Penrith, Emu Plains, Cranebrook, St Marys, Werrington, Kingswood, Glenmore Park and Mulgoa. It’s classic mortgage belt territory that has also assumed a special significance for the Liberal Party as the home of the “Howard Battlers”. Member Jackie Kelly has held the seat since 1996. Until then, Labor’s Ross Free had been the local MP since its creation in 1984.
On demographics and on state results Lindsay looks as if it should be a Labor seat, and Kelly’s success in winning and holding the electorate has seen her become the champion of the myth of working-class support for the Howard Government.
Kelly, who it’s believed wanted to retire at the 2004 poll, will not contest this election, declaring politics to be “a bugger of a life’. Labor candidate David Bradbury, a former mayor of Penrith, will be hoping she’s wrong. The redistribution has made the seat tougher for the Liberals to hold and there’s speculation that the battlers are going off Howard. Bradbury has already made two attempts to win Lindsay. Without Kelly’s personal vote, that task should be easier. Labor won’t win government if it can’t win seats like Lindsay.
Declared Candidates
- David Bradbury, Australian Labor Party
- Karen Chijoff, Liberal Party
- Lesley Edwards, Greens
2 PARTY PREFERRED BOOTH SWINGS - 2004 ELECTION
2 PARTY PREFERRED VOTE BY BOOTH - 2004 ELECTION
LEGEND:
Blue: Liberals
Red: Labor
Size of figure reflects the number of votes cast at booth
OTHER NSW MARGINALS
