Balcatta – WA 2017

LIB 7.0%

Incumbent MP
Chris Hatton, since 2013.

Geography
Northern Perth. Balcatta covers central parts of the City of Stirling, including the suburbs of Balcatta, Joondanna, Osborne Park, Stirling, Tuart Hill and Hamersley.

Redistribution
Balcatta expanded slightly, gaining the remainder of Hamersley from Girrawheen. This change cut the Liberal margin from 7.3% to 7%.

History
The current seat of Balcatta was created in 2005, but previously existed for three periods between 1904 and 1996. Its most famous member was Brian Burke.

When Balcatta was created in 2005, it partly replaced the abolished seat of Nollamara. Nollamara had been held by the ALP’s John Kobelke since 1989.

Kobelke served as a parliamentary secretary in the Lawrence government and served on the frontbench when the ALP was in opposition in the 1990s. He served as a minister from 2001 to 2005.

Kobelke’s 9.2% margin was slashed to 2.3% in 2008, with the ALP suffering a swing of almost 10% on primary votes.

John Kobelke retired in 2013, and the Liberal Party’s Chris Hatton won the seat thanks to a swing of almost 10%.

Candidates

Assessment
Balcatta is a marginal seat, and will be a key battleground if Labor is on track to possibly form government.

2013 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Chris Hatton Liberal 10,756 51.9 +10.7 51.6
Janet Pettigrew Labor 7,341 35.4 -6.5 35.7
Sheridan Young Greens 1,705 8.2 -3.3 8.2
Peter Dodd Australian Christians 322 1.6 -2.0 1.6
Lesley Croll Family First 264 1.3 -0.6 1.3
Joe Ruzzi Independent 234 1.1 +1.1 1.1
Mubarak Kim Kidima Independent 122 0.6 +0.6 0.6
Informal 1,727 7.7

2013 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Chris Hatton Liberal 11,886 57.3 +9.5 57.0
Janet Pettigrew Labor 8,841 42.7 -9.5 43.0

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into three parts: central, north and south.

The Liberal Party won slim majorities of the vote in the north (50.7%) and the centre (51.1%), while Labor won 50.5% of the two-party-preferred vote in the south.

Voter group GRN % LIB 2PP % Total votes % of votes
Central 5.7 57.9 8,234 37.7
South 9.7 55.2 6,381 29.2
North 9.2 54.8 2,454 11.2
Pre-poll 9.2 62.1 1,149 5.3
Other votes 10.3 58.3 3,626 16.6

Two-party-preferred votes in Balcatta at the 2013 WA state election

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