Maribyrnong – Election 2010

ALP 15.3%

Incumbent MP
Bill Shorten, since 2007.

Geography
Western Melbourne. Maribyrnong covers suburbs near the Maribyrnong River, including a majority of Moonee Valley council area, parts of Brimbank council area and a small part of Maribyrnong council area. Suburbs include Sunshine, Albion, Kealba, Essendon, Aberfeldie, Moonee Ponds, Niddrie and Keilor.

History
Maribyrnong was created for the 1906 election. Apart from a few early wins by conservative parties, the seat has almost always been won by the ALP.

The seat was first won in 1906 by Samuel Mauger, a member of the Anti-Socialist party. Mauger had previously held Melbourne Ports since Federation. He joined the Commonwealth Liberal Party on its formation in 1909, but lost Maribyrnong in 1910 to Labor candidate James Fenton.

Fenton held the seat continuously for the next two decades, and became Minister for Trade in the Scullin government in 1929. He served as Acting Prime Minister in 1930 when Scullin was travelling, and during this period he breached with the majority of the Labor caucus, and in 1931 he followed Joseph Lyons out of the ALP and joined the new United Australia Party.

Fenton won re-election in 1931 as a UAP candidate, and served as a minister for the first year of the Lyons government, but fell out with the government and served out his term as a backbencher, losing the seat in 1934 to the ALP’s Arthur Drakeford.

Drakeford served as Minister for the Air and Minister for Civil Aviation for the entirety of the Labor government from 1941 to 1949, and held his seat until his defeat at the 1955 election, when preferences from anti-communist Labor rebels (who later formed the Democratic Labor Party) delivered the seat to Liberal candidate Philip Stokes.

Stokes managed to hold on to the seat for the next decade as Maribyrnong saw a high vote for the DLP. Stokes held the seat until his defeat in 1969.

Maribyrnong was won in 1969 by the ALP’s Moss Cass. Cass served as Minister for the Environment in the Whitlam government, and retired from Parliament in 1983.

The seat was won in 1983 by Alan Griffiths. Griffiths joined the ministry after the 1990 election, and served as a minister until he was forced to resign from the ministry in 1994 due to allegations that he used his electoral office resources to bail out a failed sandwich shop venture. He retired from Parliament in 1996.

Maribyrnong was won in 1996 by Bob Sercombe, a former Victorian state MP. Sercombe had served as Deputy Leader of the ALP before attempting a leadership coup against John Brumby, Leader of the Opposition. Sercombe briefly served as a junior shadow minister after the 2004 election. He was challenged for preselection in 2005 by AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten, and he withdrew.

Shorten won the seat in 2007, and has served as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Rudd government since his election.

Candidates

• Bill Shorten (Labor) – Member for Maribyrnong since 2007, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services and Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction.
• Colin Moyle (Family First)
• Tim Long (Greens)
• Robert Livesay (Democrats)
• Conrad D’Souza (Liberal)

Political situation
This seat is very safe for the ALP. Shorten will have no trouble winning re-election.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into three areas: west, east and central, as is indicated on the following map. The ALP polls most strongly in the west, with almost 76%. In contrast, they polled 57.6% in the east of the seat, with the centre of the seat polling somewhere in between. The Greens polled much higher in the east.