Victorian State Election 2010: Box Hill
Electorate: Box Hill
Margin: Liberal 5.2%
Upper house region: Eastern Metropolitan
Federal: Kooyong/Chisholm
Click here for Victorian Electoral Commission map
The candidates
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CLARK, Robert
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Electorate analysis: The suburb of Box Hill is 15 kilometres east of central Melbourne, and an electorate bearing the name has existed since 1945. The seat changed hands along with government to the Liberals in 1955, to Labor in 1982 and back to the Liberals in 1992. Its bellwether status came to end when the swing at the 1999 election was limited to 2.7 per cent, which left the Liberals with enough of a buffer to survive a further 6.5 per cent swing in 2002. Robert Clark has been the member since 1992, having earlier spent a term as member for abolished Balwyn. He has served as a parliamentary secretary during the Kennett government and as an opposition front-bencher since the 1999 election defeat, progressing from planning and WorkCover to Shadow Treasurer in September 2001. The latter role was briefly lost to Robert Dean following Robert Doyle’s leadership coup against Denis Napthine in August 2002, but recovered when Dean was unable to contest the 2002 election because he had been removed from the electoral roll. After the election he was reassigned to Shadow Attorney-General, which he has retained since, along with other portfolios including information technology, industrial relations and energy and resources. Since November 2009 his only additional portfolio has been finance.
Analysis written by William Bowe. Read William’s blog, The Poll Bludger.