By Michael Newhouse
STATE Labor’s longest serving sitting MP, George Seitz, defied the odds, his Liberal opponent, and most of the pundits, as the grandfather of the back bench cruised to victory in the seat of Keilor with an increased margin on the weekend.
Bucking the modest statewide swing away from the Labor Party, Mr Seitz won the seat easily over his Liberal opponent John Clifford, polling an estimated 70 per cent of the two-party preferred vote – up from 68 at the last election – with close to 80 per cent of the ballots counted.
Once all the ballots have been counted Mr Seitz is likely to hold the seat by a margin of nearly 20 per cent margin, up from 18 per cent before Saturday’s poll.
After a day spent meeting and greeting Keilor voters at various polling booths around the electorate, Mr Seitz and fellow party members returned to his Sydenham electoral office to watch the count on television.
But after 24 years in State Parliament, Mr Seitz’s nerves were still showing as the 65-year-old waited around anxiously for individual polling booth results to filter through on Saturday night.
“For myself, I am ecstatic to improve and increase the (Labor) vote,” he said after victory was certain.
“Each time it’s new. It’s always a new beginning, a new government, a new experience,” Mr Seitz said after the win.
In theory, this should be Mr Seitz’s last hurrah, because Labor Party rules say sitting members must retire when they turn 65.
For this election the party’s administrative committee granted Mr Seitz an exemption from the age restriction rules.
But for Mr Seitz, who has never held a cabinet position, one of the biggest battles he’ll fight in his next term is the battle to get these “discriminatory” rules changed for good.
“Medically and everything else – health checks and that – tell me I’m fit and well, so all I need to do is change the party rules and overcome that hurdle,” he said.
For the Liberal Party, and its candidate, John Clifford, the Keilor result was something close to a catastrophe.
Mr Seitz has been the subject of a number of public allegations relating to branchstacking in Melbourne’s West over the past decade, and is under police investigation for fraud – something the Liberal Party hoped would lead to at least a modest swing away from the Labor Party at this election.
“It’s a shock, both for the whole party and for myself,” Mr Clifford said, as he tried to come to grips with what he said was a very disappointing result.
“We’ve got to go right back to basics… we need to get a lot more organised,” he said.
