Vanessa wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2010 at 5:33pm:

47.14

Must be the only place in the country to have a swing towards the ALP !!

Peter Garrett only just scraped in. From the local paper.

Backlash  hits home

It may be dark days for Labor, but in Kingsford Smith Peter Garrett has hung on for a third term.

The voter backlash against Labor, which has resulted in the possibility of a hung parlia­ment at the national level, had a stinging impact in this Labor heartland seat.

Mr Garrett, who suffered a bruising swing of -8.38 per cent, said it was now time for Labor to start listening to the people. He said Labor had to consider "the message that is being sent".

The Liberals made such a big dent in Labor's stranglehold on Kingsford Smith, with the mar­gin toppling from 13.3 to 5.1 per cent, that the seat will fall into Liberal hands in 2013 if Labor fails to stop the bleed of voters.

The swing to the Liberals in Kingsford Smith (+7.58) was more than three times the na­tional average.