(Sourced (for as long as the abc posts http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/keysbystatename.htm"Bennelong (NSW)
LIB 4.1%: With the possible exception of Wentworth, Bennelong is the most interesting contest at the 2004(sic)(read"2007 election") election.
Covering 58 square kilometres on the northern side of the Parramatta River, Bennelong includes all of Ryde Council and parts of neighbouring Hornsby and Parramatta councils, including the main centres of Ryde, Eastwood, Epping and parts of Gladesville, Beecroft and Ermington.
The seat was created with the enlargement of the parliament in 1949
and has been Liberal-held since,
with only two sitting members, Sir John Cramer 1949-74 and current incumbent John Howard since 1974.
Over the last 15 years, redistributions have pushed Bennelong westward,
losing solid Liberal voting areas in Lane Cove and Hunters Hill,
slowly eroding the Liberal margin in the seat.
It is these changes that have produced the situation where Prime Minister John Howard
now faces (read faced untile yesterday)
a serious challenge in his own seat, left(no pun intended?)
with a margin
that would see his seat fall if his government were to(read"did") lose the election(yesterday).
Adding to the challenge is the Labor Party's choice of
well-known former(**recently** former) ABC journalist Maxine McKew as his opponent,
now battling with the man she previously interviewed for the ABC,
at the 2007 election set to be interviewed on the result in Bennelong rather than commenting upon it.
No Prime Minister has lost his seat since Stanley Bruce in 1929(NB this period in Aus history is know as "The Depression")
, but Prime Ministers do not normally find themselves holding marginal seats."
//an aside:
despite abc's "experts" being from the u.s. of a.since the change of management a few(number-of) years ago,
Maxine McKew has continued on the pathe (read public service) simply into an adjoining arena, likewise a public arena.
Go Maxxiie........ MAX.
(pic: scales of justice;)
