Tangney – Election 2010

LIB 9.8%

Incumbent MP
Dennis Jensen, since 2004.

Geography
Southern Perth. Tangney includes a number of suburbs on the southern shore of the Swan River and Canning River. Tangney covers most of Melville council area, the southern half of Canning council area, and a smaller part of Gosnells council. Suburbs include Alfred Cove, Attadale, Melville, Applecross, Mount Pleasant, Winthrop, Leeming, Willetton, Canning Vale, Rossmoyne and Shelley.

Redistribution
Prior to the recent redistribution, Tangney did not include suburbs south of the Roe Highway, primarily Canning Vale and parts of Southern River. Tangney included the suburbs of Ferndale, Lynwood and Langford on the eastern edge of the seat, but these were transferred out of the seat. This increased the Liberal margin from 8.7% to 9.8%.

History
Tangney was created at the 1974 redistribution. The Liberal Party has dominated the seat, winning Tangney at all but two elections.

Tangney was first won in 1974 by 27-year-old John Dawkins, running for the ALP. Dawkins only held the seat for one term, losing it in 1975. Dawkins later won the seat of Fremantle in 1977 and served as a cabinet minister in the Hawke government and then Treasurer in the Keating government until his retirement in 1993.

The Liberal Party’s Peter Richardson won Tangney in 1975. Richardson left the Liberal Party in 1977 and joined the minor Progress Party, a libertarian pro-market party founded by John Singleton. He ran for the Senate in 1977, but failed to win a seat.

Tangney was won in 1977 by Liberal candidate Peter Shack. He held the seat until 1983, when he lost the seat to the ALP’s George Gear. Gear only held the seat for one term, before transferring to Canning in 1984. He later served as Assistant Treasurer from 1993 to 1996, and lost Canning at the 1996 election.

In 1984, Tangney was won back by Peter Shack. He held it for the next decade, before retiring in 1993.

Tangney was won in 1993 by barrister Daryl Williams, also from the Liberal Party. Williams was appointed Attorney-General upon the election of the Howard government in 1996. He served in the role until 2003, when he became Minister for Communications. He retired from Parliament in 2004.

In 2004, Tangney was won by Dennis Jensen. He is a prominent climate change skeptic, and was often the loudest voice criticising action on climate change in the Parliament. In 2006, he lost his preselection, but this was overturned after intervention by John Howard, and he was re-elected in 2007.

Candidates

• Peter Best (Greens)
• David Doepel (Labor)
• Moyna Rapp (Family First)
• Dennis Jensen (Liberal) – Member for Tangney since 2004.
• Ka-ren Chew (Christian Democratic Party)

Political situation
Despite Jensen’s lack of support in the local Liberal Party, he has a solid margin in this seat and should have no trouble winning re-election.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

These results do not take into consideration the effects of the redistribution.

Booth breakdown
Booths in Tangney have been divided into four areas. Booths in Melville council area have been split between South-West and Booragoon-Ardross, with the remainder of the seat divided between North-East and Canning Vale.

The Liberal Party won a majority in all four areas, peaking at over 66% in Booragoon-Ardross and under 55% in the North-East. The Greens polled around 8% in three of the areas, with just over 5% in Canning Vale.