Werriwa – Election 2010

ALP 15.1%

Incumbent MP
Chris Hayes, since 2005.

Geography
South-western Sydney. Werriwa covers northern parts of the City of Campbelltown and western parts of the City of Liverpool, as well as a small part of Camden council. Key suburbs include Casula, Glenfield, Macquarie Fields, Ingleburn, Minto, St Andrews, Hoxton Park, Prestons, Rossmore and Austral.

Redistribution
Werriwa moved slightly north, losing Blairmount and Woodbine to Macarthur and gaining Austral from Fowler.

History
Werriwa is an original federation electorate, named after an indigenous name for Lake George, near the ACT. The seat originally covered parts of southern NSW including what became northern parts of the ACT. It gradually shifted northeast to the Illawarra, eventually reaching the Liverpool-Campbelltown area. The seat has been a safe Labor seat since the 1930s, and has been held by a number of prominent Labor figures, including a Prime Minister, a Treasurer and a Leader of the Opposition. The seat has seen a record number of five federal by-elections, which have all seen Labor retain the seat, in 1912, 1952, 1978, 1994 and 2005.

The seat was first won by Alfred Conroy of the Free Trade Party in 1901. Conroy was defeated by David Hall (ALP) in 1906. Hall was re-elected in 1910, but resigned in 1912 to return to state politics. Hall served as Minister for Justice then Attorney-General from 1912 to 1920. Hall was expelled from the ALP in 1916 for supporting conscription, along with Premier William Holman.

Werriwa was won by the ALP’s Benjamin Bennett at the 1912 by-election, but retired at the 1913 election, when Conroy was re-elected for the Liberal Party. John Lynch gained the seat back from Conroy in 1914, and left the ALP in 1916 over conscription, becoming a Nationalist.

Lynch was re-elected as a Nationalist in 1917 but lost the seat to the ALP’s Hubert Lazzarini in 1919. Werriwa began to strongly shift from the Southern Highlands into the Illawarra region at the 1922 redistribution, and over the next thirty years Lazzarini saw the seat shift into the Liverpool district and eventually lose the Illawarra.

Lazzarini followed NSW Premier Jack Lang out of the ALP in 1931, and was one of the Labor splitters who brought down the Scullin government, and lost Werriwa to Country Party candidate Walter McNicoll at that year’s election.

Lazzarini regained Werriwa as a Lang Labor candidate in 1934, and returned to the ALP in 1936. Lazzarini served as a minister in the Curtin government and the first Chifley ministry in the 1940s, and held the seat until his death in 1952.

The 1952 by-election was won by ALP candidate Gough Whitlam. Whitlam ascended to the leadership of the Labor Party in 1967 and was elected Prime Minister in 1972. Whitlam was Prime Minister for three years, losing the 1975 election following the dismissal of his government. He remained Leader of the Opposition and led the ALP into the 1977 election, retiring in 1978.

The 1978 by-election was won by John Kerin, who had previously held the neighbouring seat of Macarthur from 1972 until his defeat in 1975. Kerin served as a minister for the entirety of the Hawke government, rising to the position of Treasurer after Paul Keating moved to the backbench in 1991, but a troubled period as Treasurer saw him move to the backbench just before Keating became Prime Minister, and he retired in 1994.

The 1994 by-election was won by Mayor of Liverpool and Whitlam protege Mark Latham. Latham quickly rose to the ALP frontbench following their 1996 election defeat, although he left the frontbench after the 1998 election because of conflicts with ALP leader Kim Beazley.

Latham returned to the frontbench following the 2001 election, when Simon Crean succeeded Kim Beazley as Leader of the Opposition, rising to the position of Shadow Treasurer before Crean resigned as Leader, and Latham was narrowly elected as Labor leader in December 2003.

Latham led the ALP to a defeat at the 2004 election and resigned in early 2005 as both Labor leader and Member for Werriwa. The ensuing by-election (at which the author stood as a candidate for the Greens) saw ALP candidate Chris Hayes safely elected, and he won re-election in 2007.

Candidates

• Lauren Moore (Greens)
• Sam Eskanos (Liberal)
• Laurie Ferguson (Labor)

Political situation
This seat is a very safe Labor seat, and this won’t be changing in 2010. Hayes was a good local member and had built up a presence, but was still very low-profile. There will be some locals angry at the replacement of their local member with a parachuted MP from a different part of Sydney, but this will have a minimal impact on the Labor vote.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

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

Booth breakdown
Werriwa covers large parts of two local government areas, namely Liverpool and Campbelltown. It also covers a small part of Camden. I have divided this area into four districts, two of which in Campbelltown, one in Liverpool, and one mostly in Liverpool and partly in Camden. I have named these after key suburbs in each of those areas. There wasn’t great diversity within each of these areas, although the Liberals won a number of semi-rural booths in Hoxton-Rossmore, where the ALP polled less than 59% overall, compared to 64-67% in the more urban parts of the seat.