Wakefield is a mixed bag of rural and outer suburban areas, with the mix skewed in favour of the Labor Party.
Wakefield
is currently held by Liberal member, David Fawcett. Fawcett is an
active member of parliament in Canberra and doing much work within the
electorate, and maintaining a high profile. Fawcett has his electoral
office within the Munno Para shopping centre Munno Para is a strong
aspirational working class area. Fawcett
also maintains strong links to the rural part of his electorate, where
there is a strong majority of locked in Liberal voters. There aren’t enough of these rural voters ot keep Fawcett in office though, hence his office in Labor heartland.
During
the most recent state election, there were some surprising moments for
me. I was handing out how to vote cards for Independent Nick Xenophon,
and was amazed at the number of people at the Mallala polling booth who
said ’no need for the card, I’m already voting for Nick!’ Of course,
this was for a State Government Upper House position, and to some
extent was a protest vote against the Labor government. So, with the
current disquiet towards our long-standing Prime Minister, perhaps
something amazing may occur in the country areas of Wakefield!
New
kid Nick Champion is the Labor hopeful. He is younger than Fawcett, and
was raised in rural Kapunda. He is unmarried, while Fawcett is married
with children. Champion currently works as
a Sport and Recreation policy adviser for the Rann Government. He has
been an official for the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’
Association, and was the President of the South Australian branch of
the ALP in 2005/2006. Champion
seems an approachable bloke, with a good sense of humour. He’ll have to
be that and more to charm the ladies who’ve fallen for David Fawcett’s
charms. He may not need to worry about that though, with the poll
pundits predicting Labor will win the seat.
The
other contender for Wakefield is Terry Allen, for The Greens. Allen
works in the wool Industry in the northern suburbs of Adelaide. He has
indicated that he “hopes the election will be called soon”. I’m sure we
all echo that sentiment – the waiting is a killer!
There is also going to be a person standing in Wakefield for the 'What
Women Want' party. I'll have to keep an eye on that and report back.
|
|
|
News Archive 
