Geelong has been the focal point of the electorate of Corio since it was created at federation, its name being derived from the bay on which the city is situated. However, it originally extended northwards to encompass areas beyond Melbourne’s limits including Sunbury, Melton and Bacchus Marsh, became more strongly focused on Geelong after the expansion of parliament in 1949. The continuing growth of Geelong has been such that the its south-western suburbs of Highton, Belmont and Grovedale are now accommodated by Corangamite, a once rurally oriented and safe Liberal seat that has more lately been highly marginal. Corio nonetheless extends south to cover the Bellarine Peninsula, and north to encompass Lara 20 kilometres to Geelong’s north.
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| Red and blue numbers respectively indicate size of two-party Labor and Liberal polling booth majorities. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room. |
Now a safe seat for Labor, Corio was a litmus test electorate early in its life, having changed hands along with government in 1910 (to Labor), 1913 (to Liberal), 1914 (to Labor), 1917 (to the Nationalists), 1929 (to Labor) and 1931 (to the United Australia Party). It fell to Labor ahead of schedule at a 1940 by-election after Richard Casey was appointed ambassador to the United States (he would return to parliament in 1949 as member for La Trobe), a result that played a crucial role in Bob Menzies’ defeat on the floor of parliament the following year. Cycling hero Hubert Opperman recovered the seat for the Liberals with the 1949 election win, eventually serving as Immigration Minister before taking up a diplomatic post in 1967. Bob Hawke unsuccessfully contested the seat for Labor in 1963, and newly arrived Labor leader Gough Whitlam encouraged him to do so again when Opperman departed mid-term in 1967. Hawke preferred to pursue his designs on the ACTU presidency at that time, and the by-election was won for Labor by engine driver Gordon Scholes, in an early electoral success for Whitlam. Scholes consolidated his hold over time, managing to survive by just 20 votes in 1975, and the seat had become fairly safe for Labor by the time he retired in 1993.
The next member was Gavan O’Connor, who rose to the front bench in 1998 but became increasingly imperilled as local Labor branches fell under the control of the Right. This enabled ACTU assistant secretary Richard Marles to unseat him at a preselection vote held in March 2006, winning 57% of the local party vote. O’Connor registered his displeasure by running as an independent, complaining that Kevin Rudd – who had not in fact been leader at the time – had told him he lacked the power to prevent Marles’s union backers from rolling him. O’Connor managed only 12.7% of the vote, with the Labor vote falling only 1.2% and increasing by 3.3% on two-party preferred. Without the complication of O’Connor in 2010, and with Labor performing well across the state, Marles added 5.3% to his margin, before a 5.7% correction in 2013 reduced it to its present level of 7.7%.
Marles was quickly promoted to parliamentary secretary in June 2009, but took a further four years to attain ministerial rank. After remaining in the Julia Gillard camp during Kevin Rudd’s first leadership challenge in February 2012, Marles came out in support for Rudd during his abortive second bid a year later. He resigned as parliamentary secretary when the challenge failed to eventuate, joining an exodus that also included Chris Bowen, Martin Ferguson, Kim Carr and Simon Crean. When Rudd succeeded in toppling Gillard in June, he won promotion to cabinet as Trade Minister, a position that had been vacated by the resignation of Craig Emerson. Since the 2013 election defeat he has held the position of Shadow Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.
confessions
I do not post my entire twitter feed. You would know if I did.
Julie Bishop will be at the Grand Final. Be interesting to see what foreign affairs business took her to Melbourne conveniently on this day.
Hilarious, unintentionally self-parodying headline from the News Ltd site. They seem to think it’s notable when one of their front page photos is NOT Photoshopped.
[49
guytaur
@senatormilne: “Truth is not inflammatory but dog whistling (is)…]
She should know, being something of vitruoso whistler herself.
confessions
eg. You do not see.
“@LawAnswersAU: Non-Delivery of Purchased Bitcoins from Bitxoin http://t.co/bUC5ot3l7d #auslaw”
“@131500buses: Tickets to @NRL_Bulldogs v @PenrithPanthers game @ANZStadium include travel on public transport. Leave car at home – heavy traffic expected”
“@BBCWorld: Paraguay sinking: Eight bodies found http://t.co/wPQFPVfCFQ”
“@PBS: Not near a TV? Stream AMERICA AFTER FERGUSON live on @YouTube: http://t.co/drMLEgdL7c & join the conversation w/ #AfterFergusonPBS.”
and many more
guytaur,
Your twitter feed must be a weapon of mass distraction.
GG
I assume you have your own twitter feed or facebook or are relyinging on the dinosaur of old media for your worldview
relying that should be sorry
Breaking news
Today the PM announced that new laws had been passed which allowed unwanted babies and the children of refugees to be humanely “wasted” and stewed for export to starving populations in Africa. This is a humane solution to a difficult problem Mr Abbott said. These unwanted children will save many lives by donating their own.
Mr Shorten has reluctantly supported the proposal on the ground of the greater good. Analyst Joe Hartcher suggested “Most ALP members while reluctant to support this measure at first, will accept that to oppose such humanitiarian measures risks electoral backlash and will give Mr Shorten and the new look ALP full support”
No comment from me but this might interest some of you…
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/batch-of-false-votes-tars-cathy-mcgowans-indi-win/story-fn59niix-1227072146852
[42
sprocket_
And the PDF with the full reasoning why ISIS is anti Islamic, with the 126 Islamic scholars named at the end who are endorsing
http://lettertobaghdadi.com/14/english-v14.pdf ]
Thanks
dtt,
Can I get fries with that?
guytau
I think GG relies on his parish newsletter for his world view.
retweeted by Ed Husic
@iiNet: Australia or Romania: Which country has faster internet speeds? http://t.co/jSvaGfPLH9 #iiNBNexperts http://t.co/GrDik557Rq
Zoomster
For a person who waxes passionately abouth the inability of others to get over slights and wrongs you sure do hold a grudge against McGowan.
confessions
He talked about footy obviously with a twist of politics thrown in. Shorten barracks for Collingwood and he made reference to them. He ended with backing Sydney and Josh kennedy for the Norm Smith.
So far it has been difficult to find anyone backing the Hawks. OH and son are going to the game today.
They attended GF in 2008 and Hawks win
Attended 2012 Hawks lose
Son attended 2013 (as OH was too sick to go on the day) and Hawks win
If a pattern is followed, they are due to lose today. 🙁
GG
[Can I get fries with that?]
You can have a Jamie recipe sticker intead.
Guytaur
We will not need internet speed anymore because those who like their privacy will return to snail mail.
This will include businesses because you only need ONE crooked ASIO officer to have all your trade secrets passed to your competitors.
guytaur,
It’s amusing that you think posting links without interpretation or context is anything but spam. You don’t actually have views. You’re a twitter twat.
Anyhoo, we were told last night that Cyril rioli is not playing today. Sewell to take his place
dtt
[For a person who waxes passionately abouth the inability of others to get over slights and wrongs..]
Do I? Gosh.
Guytaur
I have long said that those who rely on “cloud” technology are risking havng massive data loss. Now I add to that the risk of widespread data theft.
If you are an innovative business with patents to protect, a political organisation, green group, trade union, charity or international trader you would be wise to move off line and ALWAYS unplug your systems at night.
GG
Yeah that iinet tweet is spam along with the other ones I have posted by Bill Shorten and other politicians.
Your problem is you want to call it spam because you don’t like how people are reacting on this issue so you are shooting the messenger.
[We will not need internet speed anymore because those who like their privacy will return to snail mail…]
Firstly, it’s very very trusting of you to think that snail mail is safer. What do you think spies did before the internet?
Secondly, I look forward to PB only being inhabited by sensible people.
dtt,
The PM, Leader of the Opposition and the Governor General are all Catholics.
Parish newsletters may indeed be a fine source of information for anyone aspiring to know what is going on.
Crispin Hull in the Canberra Times lists dying in car accidents, obesity induced fatal illnesses and Global Warming as having a much higher chance of killing Australians than terrorist attacks.
He criticises our response to the “threats” to the Homeland – sending warplanes 10,000 ilometres to bomb a few villages – as not only disproportionate, but utterly useless and counter-productive.
A good sensible read. Highly recommended.
[62
Greensborough Growler
dtt,
Can I get fries with that?]
and some Greens..
[eg. You do not see. ]
Right. That feels so much better knowing it’s only every second comment you make here being something plucked from your twitter feed instead of every comment you make here being such.
guytaur,
Mainstream Australia seems to be largely oblivious to the confected outrage that you and your coterie of lefty torch song blatherers are going on about.
Basically, Australia yawns at your tantrums.
victoria:
I’m tipping Sydney to win today as well. Sorry to your OH and son.
confessions
You said entirely. Now you say every second. Wrong again.
You do not like the fact I am posting about bad laws that Labor voted for.
This is why the sudden complaint when you were happy before.
GG
I yawn at your attempt to deride sharing more than one opinion.
fess,
It will be a close man on man encounter. Class will prevail in the end.
It seems Labor member are still in defensive mode this morning.
How about someone hacking your computer? Because it’s no different to the gov doing it or some random person on the internet.
You cannot use the excuse of the spies checking your snail mail, because the digital version of your snail mail is your email.
You do not need unlimited access to ones devices or access to persons hard drive, for that to happen, governments all over already have hardware to check your traffic over the web.
guytaur,
You’re yawning at yourself then!
zoid,
You’re going to be desperately disappointed that no one would think of hacking you.
My condolences.
@SatPaper: MP Melissa Parke: “I am a member of a political class that has let Australia down.” Dissent in Labor’s ranks http://t.co/HJpcmJfrT9
See this speaks for itself and you can link it to read the article so even you GG should see this is a link to a newspaper article about a Labor politician.
[zoomster
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2014 at 10:19 am | Permalink
…
Secondly, I look forward to PB only being inhabited by sensible people.]
It’s a good thing you are a very patient person zoomster.
[MP Melissa Parke: “I am a member of a political class that has let Australia down.”]
She is an MP who has let herself down.
@GG/86
Plenty of people being hacked every day or ddos’d for that matter.
You guys should really be banned off the internet you know, from a security perspective, you are a disease.
[This is why the sudden complaint when you were happy before.]
I wouldn’t say I was happy before, nor would I say I’ve never complained before.
And I don’t mind the odd tweet, but lately you’re like one of those spam bots. From the moment you comment here until you go to bed at night, it’s a constant barrage of tweets, most of which are by random, unknown people nobody’s ever heard of before!
@Briefly/89
No you have Briefly.
[She is an MP who has let herself down.]
Actually I’m inclined to agree with Parke. And I’m okay with her speaking publicly in this way.
Oh dear.
I’m not the only one critical of McGowan, it appears.
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/2588819/focus-the-question-on-many-peoples-lips-is-what-can-she-achieve/
She appears to admit that her only achievement so far is the apology to the Stolen Generation – and that none of the federal funding coming into the electorate is for projects she lobbied for…
Confessions
So you say now. I dispute your assertions and see your complaints today as shooting the messenger because you do not like what the message is.
An attempt to get someone banned so you can go back to living in your bunker?
I have taken William’s advice on board about tweets and am careful not to overdo it.
For example today I could be posting a lot of Grand Final tweets I have even seen a few from politicians and I have not posted any of them.
So I say suck it up as I see your sudden complaints today as shooting the messenger because you hate the fact I have been posting about how Labor voted for bad law
zoidy,
But, sadly, it will never be you to be hacked.
So you think anyone showing moderation, perspective and balanced views to issues should be banned?
How totalitarian of you.
@GG/96
Your far from balanced views GG.
Jesus guytaur, grow up. I couldn’t give a shit about the content of the vast majority of the tweets you copy and paste here because most of them are by people I’ve never heard of and so their opinions are worthless to me. It’s the sheer volume of them that is annoying.
But besides all that, doesn’t it bother you at all that the only things you have to say about anything are things other people have already said somewhere else? Surely you have your own opinions and are capable of communicating them?
zoidlord
Posted Friday, September 26, 2014 at 2:09 pm
[and from my POV, anyone who supports these National Security laws, is no longer supportive of multicultural nation, and I would go as far as branding them UnAustralian.]
Is this a balanced view Zoid?
Katharine Murphy gets a real slapping from commenters to this (as usual) overly pious, self pitying article of hers in The Guardian.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/26/the-acid-test-australian-journalists-must-ask-what-agenda-they-serve
The consensus seems to be that her breast-beating is far too little and far too late, given her record of unquestioning obedience to the Press Gallery herd instinct and her oh-so-casual, snarky slag-offs at Julia Gillard and her government’s attempts to govern while sitting on a double-sided knife’s edge of smart-arsed hecking and minority government, spurred on by a Coalition obsessed with wrecking everything they touched.
An example, from many, many similar examples, a little more “dot-pointed” than others, but making up for it in incisiveness: