Easson on the NSW redistribution

Here is a good article of the NSW redistribution by Shane Easson. It is the only analysis I have seen to point out that the leftward drift of Bennelong is largely due to the increased population of Asian-Australian voters. This was a constituency Howard alienated (relative to how an affluent largely petty-bourgeoisie community on the north shore they would otherwise vote) with his flirtation with Hanson. On ethnic politics at least NSW Labor seems to likely to endorse candidates from communities that support the party, an improvement on the Carr era. Meet Shane Easson once back in the 1980s, compotent and hard working, but I remember he was pleased with his submission to the 1986 NSW state redistribution, which was adopted by the Commissioners, to spread out the Labor vote by making Cessnock into a largely rural seat cutting about 14% off the Labor margin. The embarrassing result (aided by the errors of the Unsworth government and many other issues) was that Labor lost Cessnock in 1988. Jack Baddeley would have been horrified.