The electorate of Batman is located in Melbourne’s middle northern suburbs and named after early settler and explorer, John Batman; regarded by many as the ‘Founder of Melbourne’. The current member for the seat is ALP member and also Shadow Minister for Transport Roads and Tourism, Martin Ferguson.

Batman includes northern districts of Melbourne such as Northcote, Reservoir, Preston, Fairfield and parts of Macleod, Bundoora, Kingsbury and Coburg North. The seat is substantial distance from the CBD of geographically widespread Melbourne but it has not been near the residential fringes of Greater Melbourne for around 40 years. Therefore it is fairly stagnant in its change and development of housing, infrastructure and the landscape. This has ramifications for the politics of the area as no major publicly or privately funded constructions currently create jobs. The seat of Batman has a large migrant population. Furthermore people of Greek and also Italian descent make up a large portion of Batman residents.

Plenty Road runs directly through the seat. Various cafes and many multicultural and mixed wealth small shops as well as pubs and chain stores line this transportation artery of the Northern suburbs. This mass of commercial business and the many votes of the local employees of these businesses would be of major importance to the local election candidates. As well as these important commercial businesses, Batman also contains some light industry such as textile manufacturers. Therefore the issue of Industrial relations may significantly influence many working class local employees of Batman at the upcoming election.

Like many areas of Australia, water is an issue in Batman as Melbourne’s major water reserves continue to shrink and water restrictions rise. Local member Martin Ferguson seems mindful of the issue of water, with consistent reference to water saving and the also the environment in his press releases. However Batman voters may not share these concerns about water and water restrictions in their area. This is because the number of residents of the major district of Northcote in Batman, who reside in rented flats with no gardens to water, is particularly high; almost twice the national average according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics website.

While current Batman Federal Member Martin Ferguson may be the Shadow Minister for Roads Transport and Tourism, interestingly Batman’s tourism credentials and industry are insignificant, with overseas visitors making up only 0.6% of all residents in 2006.

At the last Federal election the seat of Batman had an enrolment of 85,747 voters and a turnout of 93.6%.  The ALP got 71.3% of the two party preferred votes compared to the Liberal Party's 28.7%. Batman voters have consistently supported the Australian Labor Party with the ALP being in power since 1910 and only losing the seat once in the early 1930s. In the 2004 election, Labor member Martin Ferguson held his position which he has had since 1996, winning 55% of the first preference votes. The Liberal competition, Maxwell Gratton trailed far behind with only 26% of the first preference votes in the electorate. The Australian Greens party have a relatively significant presence in the electorate which was illustrated in 2004 when the Batman contender, Alexandra Bhathal secured 10,520 first preference votes or 14%. However most of the other smaller parties have no notable influence in the electorate with none getting more than 2% of the vote at the last election.
according to the Australian Electoral Commission

It is clear Batman has been a consistently safe Labor seat. Therefore the many other contenders for Mr Ferguson’s position will certainly have to work hard to quickly sway the thoughts and feelings of residents in Batman if they hope to win at the next election. With a various mix of issues affecting the voters from a range of multicultural backgrounds in many different ways, responses to the local concerns and desires of residents will have to mixed but specific.

Many issues affect the mix of residents, business, politicians and other stakeholders in the Federal seat of Batman. Some of the issues briefly discussed above represent only a few amongst many more which will be explored with investigation and interviews with many people and groups in the next few months coming up to the election.

Display 3 of 3 comments