ALP 4.9%
Incumbent MP
Grant McBride, since 1992.
Geography
Central Coast. The Entrance covers areas on the southern side of Lake Tuggerah, including the suburbs of The Entrance, Bateau Bay, Killarney Vale, Tuggerah and Wyoming. Most of the seat lies in the southeastern corner of Wyong Shire, as well as a part of the City of Gosford to the north of Gosford itself.
History
The seat of The Entrance has existed since the 1988 election. Prior to that period, the area covered by The Entrance had been covered by the seats of Gosford, Wyong, Munmorah and Tuggerah.
It was won in 1988 by the Liberal Party’s Bob Graham, despite the seat having a notional Labor majority.
In 1991, Graham defeated the ALP’s Grant McBride by only 116 votes, and the result was thrown out by the Court of Disputed Returns in December 1991. The Liberal Party’s hold on power was fragile, relying on the support of independent Tony Windsor to hold a majority. Following the decision in The Entrance, the Liberal Party was required to come to an arrangement with other independents.
In the ensuing by-election, McBride won the seat off Graham, with a 4.7% margin.
McBride has been re-elected in The Entrance at the 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2007 elections. He served as a minister in the Labor state government from 2003 to 2007.
Candidates
- David Mehan (Labor)
- Bob Mirovic (Christian Democratic Party)
- Chris Spence (Liberal)
- James Bond (Family First)
- Deidrie Jinks (Greens)
Political situation
The Entrance is very marginal and will be a top target for the Liberal Party.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Grant McBride | ALP | 20,239 | 47.5 | -2.6 |
| Phil Walker | LIB | 16,954 | 39.8 | +6.2 |
| Kerryn Parry-Jones | GRN | 3,763 | 8.8 | +3.5 |
| Maria Overend | AAFI | 1,663 | 3.9 | +2.5 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Grant McBride | ALP | 21,762 | 54.9 | -4.8 |
| Phil Walker | LIB | 17,907 | 45.1 | +4.8 |
Booth breakdown
The seat of The Entrance has been divided into four areas: Wyoming covers those booths in the City of Gosford. Ourimbah covers those booths in the centre of the seat, covering a sparsely-populated area in Wyong Shire. The remaining booths in the main urban area at the eastern end of the seat have been divided between The Entrance and Bateau Bay.
The ALP got around 54-55% in the three most populated areas, but in the Ourimbah area the Liberal Party won a slim majority.
| Voter group | GRN % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Bateau Bay | 7.4 | 55.4 | 13,114 | 30.8 |
| Wyoming | 10.6 | 55.5 | 12,160 | 28.5 |
| The Entrance | 7.4 | 54.5 | 4,656 | 10.9 |
| Ourimbah | 10.9 | 49.9 | 3,277 | 7.7 |
| Other votes | 8.4 | 54.4 | 9,412 | 22.1 |
This seat will most likely go to the Liberals, but….
…they apparently have pre-selected an ex-One Nation member, and Labor COULD do an ugly smear campaign highlighting this. Given this electorate, however, it probably won’t work.
I think the Liberals are more likely here than Gosford. Labor have been performing well on the central coast recently however. I expect the Liberals to win this one though.
I agree with DB, I live in Lisarow, I do my work and shopping and general business in Gosford but am in the Entrance. I’ve been hugeley impressed by Chris Spence’s campaign so far. I have seen him with a barrage of Young Liberals when i was in Long Jetty a few weeks ago. I have friends in the Gosford Electorate and they didn’t even know that Holstein was the candidate, let alone be door knocked by him. However he has apparently had a letter box drop. I think the Liberal Party will romp home.
Spence wasn’t only a former one nation rank and file member, but a candidate who stood multiple times, held several senior positions in the party, established the youth wing of the party and spent most of his adult life furthering the interests of a extreme and racist party.
Despite all this you’d have to say it’s in the bag for the liberals barring a Robertson style upset. Let’s hope that Barry O’Farrell has more sense than to make him minister for indigenous affairs.
What rubbish. Who cares what the guy did in his early 20’s. He has done nothing illegal. How many university anti-Semite, communists have gone on to join the Greens or Labor? Spence has never been quoted saying anything racist and it is a lie to suggest he was the grand founder of Young Nation. I think the only thing the people of the Entrance care about are bread and butter issues like electricity costs, employment for their kids, quality of schools and the state of the NSW Economy.
You said it Coastie, and even if Spence was a far-right nutball, look at Johnny Lee Clary, he was a former Klansman, but is now a preacher against hate groups.
Praise the Lord!
* should have said even though, not even if.
Chris Spence’s background may assist him in a seat such as this, despite RC’s obvious bias.
I couldn’t care less about the Lib candidates’s political history in One Nation – as a matter of fact that’s probably a benefit here on the Central Coast – but people who aren’t locals wouldn’t understand that. One Nation still stand there own candidates here at elections.
I’ve seen the Liberal candidate everywhere so he is working hard to win this seat. Haven’t seen any of the Labor candidate, let alone any support from the outgoing Labor member for the Labor candidate.
The Captain – absolutely agree with your analysis, having spent much time on the Central Coast and The Entrance specifically myself. RC appears way out of touch with the community there. It’s a positive for the candidate.
The Liberal party will most likely win this seat. Not many people are mentioning that Chris Spence was Treasurer of the Entrance surf club when it went broke.
And the Wyong Candidate was president!
The most likely of the Central Coast seats to fall to the Libs and probably their best hope of holding in the longer term.
Can someone who lives/has knowledge of the Central Coast area please explain why Spence’s One Nation past would aid him in his election bid?
@Matt
OneNation candidates still run in elections here. Look at the demographics – not dissimilar to the south coast of NSW, we are an insular WASP area.
Don’t One Nation and the Greens have the same economic policies?
@Coastie it wasn’t a university flirtation with extremism in his early twenties, it was most of his adult life. David Oldfield thanked him for his tireless efforts as he left parliament a couple of years ago.
@DB @thecaptain Having a one nation past isn’t a ‘positive’ on the Central Coast, though not incredibly ethnically diverse, lumping everyone in as rednecks is insulting. Abbott ran a campaign based on debt and border management labor had 2pp swings towards them in Robertson and Dobell (with the greens help may I add!).
I agree that the one nation past won’t play in this election, it will be about bread and butter issues, but to say having a past in a racist party is a positive is not true. The Liberals should know that not every election in the area is a replay of the 2001 tampa election.
Having said all this spence is running the better campaign. The ALP candidate is invisible and sadly the greens never run as strong in the area as they do in the southern end of the coast. The greens have never properly capitalised on concerns over the Kores coalmine and have largely vacated this space to the Liberals. spence will win by a healthy margin, but like the liberals future member for Wyong, will be unspectacular oncers. You can thank the incredibly poor performance of the chronically under-delivering Harcher machine for that.
I suspect this will depend on the campaign……. I think this seat overlaps Dobell where labor did well @ the 2010 Federal Election.
RC – there is no need to label or name call people. Many would say to you that there is no shame in being racist. I’d estimate that so called ‘racism’ extends to at least 40% of the population. In other words, at least 40% of the population would prefer certain cultures not to be in Australia or wouldn’t mind as long as those cultures are not near them (and its probably higher on the Central Coast). But from my extensive world experience, Australia is one of the most tolerant countries (if not the most) in the western or eastern (Asian) world, particularly when it comes to employment opportunities, which is a good thing.
Mick Quinlivan – do you have any insider info on early polling there? I am getting 60/40 in favour of the Liberal candidate which I am a little surprised about. I can’t imagine that such a swing is in order on the Central Coast generally. Have also heard that the ALP have withdrawn funding from The Entrance and Gosford, but not Wyong, which is in line with RC’s comments above.
Race and culture are two different things. It is legitimate and acceptable to hate and despise other cultures because they are not one’s own. It is not acceptable to hate a person on the basis that he or she is of a particular race.
“It is legitimate and acceptable to hate and despise other cultures because they are not one’s own.”
Eh? Take me to the universe where this sentence makes a blind bit of sense, I’d like to see it.
OK Bird of Paradox. Are you are a fan of clitoris removal or suttee? They are/were part of the culture of foreign parts. I don’t think anyone of any human decency is going to say I love those parts of their culture. So maybe it is you who lives in a strange relativist universe where somehow other peoples’ customs are all OK. Or do you think it is rude to complain about other peoples’ abhorrent mores?
The moral precept is simple: things that can be changed (religion, culture, customs, political views) are fair game for criticism. Conversely it is not morally acceptable to generalise about things that can’t be changed (sex, sexuality, race). The problem is that too many people can’t seem to ell the difference between the two.
@Bird of paradox
That’s what I was thinking, it sounds like something that would come out of the mouth of Archie Bunker.
For those not familiar with Archie Bunker:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Bunker
My prediction: Liberal gain, 15-18% swing.
I wonder how many votes the FF candidate will get given his name… 007 for Premier anyone?
Bring back the Bears!
Hey ALO: I’ve got a song for you:
Where’s My Team?!
From (probably) your most hated fans: The proud Maroon and White!
Yes, I have outed myself as a Manly fan.
My son follows Manly (sad to say). I am a born & bred Bears fan (no joy growing up), hard having a son follow Manly as you can appreciate being a Bears fan. Been supporting the Roosters over the past 10 years (no comments needed after yesterday than you). Out of interest what Branch of the Liberal Party do you belong to Hawkeye?
I am from the Wakehurst Branch, so I can say I am Manly-Warringah born and bred. I lived through the pain of the joint-venture (as you did) and then saw the rising of the mighty Sea Eagle from the ashes to smite Melbourne in October 2008. To see Beaver Menzies cross the line brought tears to my eyes and 50,000 screaming Eagles packed into the Olympic Stadium.
I am a good friend of Brad Hazzard and he has been a very good local member for us. Very intelligent, strong-willed and also very willing to participate in bipartisan co-operation with members of the ALP (I do know he is good friends with Morris Iemma).
Where I stand though is essentially factionally-unaligned and I will continue to do so. I think what Dave Clarke, Alex Hawke and Marise Payne have done during this campaign (and the federal campaign in NSW) is bring un-necessary problems to the party in the lead-up to an election. In 2010, we certainly did not represent a united front in NSW and that is one thing the party has to learn from.
I followed the joint venture for 1 year as did my son (he was just 3 turning 4). I took my son to both GF’s, he was so happy when they won in 2008 as was I to see him witness a GF victory, I then took him & my 2 nephew’s (1 who follows Manly) to the Leagues Club where we joined in the celebrations outside with thousands of others.
I was once a member of the Mosman Young Libs (many years ago) & too many try hards & wanna be’s for me. It has only been the past year & a bit where I have turned off the Libs (Workchoices which effected me) & have supported the ALP. There is some policies in which I don’t agree with, Carbon Tax for one as I don’t agree with the principle of lying during the campaign, then coming out & saying we need a price on Carbon, if Julia went in saying she wanted a price on Carbon then possibly I would support it. I don’t in any way support an alliance with the Greens. To me the ALP needs to get back to it’s true beliefs & what the Party stands for, supporting the everyday Australian worker & assisting the not so fortunate, that to me is what I believe in.
Hey, my Federal Member is Tony Abbott who my dad supports (actually my dad is a Lib through & through, as is my whole family)
I hope that Big Bazza sticks to his words & I agree it is time for a change in NSW, I hope that a policy is in place to fix the B%#@dy traffic on The Spit Bridge! It is important to have a strong & effective opposition as the saying goes “Need to keep the Bastards honest” & that is what the AP will need to do over the next 4 years!
Last line should read, That is what the ALP will need to do over the next 4 years