Eden-Monaro poll shock

October 27, 2007, 6:53pm,  226 views

The Canberra Times has reported poll results which suggest a comfortable Labor victory in the south-eastern NSW seat of Eden-Monaro. The two-party preferred vote is recorded as 56-44 in Labor’s favor.

Eden-Monaro is regarded as a litmus test for any election. The seat is generally won by the governing party.

I was working as editor of the Eden Magnet (an attractive paper) in 1996 when Liberal Gary Nairn won the seat from Labor maverick Jim Snow.

Jim was a lovely bloke who suffered the loss of timber worker support because of Paul Keating’s opposition to woodchipping. I spoke to Jim before the election and he seriously thought about becoming an independent like his mate Graeme Campbell, from Kalgoorlie. 

Nairn became the champion of the timber industry and won with blue-collar votes. He was a nice bloke too, albeit very polished for a bush MP.

He had a background running the Country Liberal Party in the Northern Territory and was definitely more Liberal than Country.

That prompted former National Party state MP Peter Cochran to run as an independent in 2001, but he secured just 8.2 percent of the vote.

Nairn is now the Special Minister of State and came into controversy after some indiscreet remarks by a staffer. He appears to be struggling to retain his seat.