| Indi |
Division of Isaacs | Jagajaga |
 Mark Dreyfus, QC (ALP) His electorate website |  |
Location: Melbourne: Chelsea, Keysborough, Mordialloc, Noble Park Division named for: Rt Hon Sir Isaac Isaacs, member of the first federal Parliament, Governor-General of Australia 1931-36 Median weekly family income: $960 (61st highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 22.4% (28th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 21.3% (116th highest) Persons employed in manufacturing: 22.3% (5th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 12.5% (87th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 40.3% (46th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 32.0% (36th highest) Sitting member: Mark Dreyfus, QC (Labor), elected 2007 Born 3 October 1956, Perth. Career: Educated University of Melbourne. Barrister. Ministerial adviser to Victorian state ministers. 1996 two-party majority: Labor 01.6 1998 two-party majority: Labor 06.4 2000 by-election two-party majority: Labor over Democrat 16.0 2001 two-party majority: Labor 06.6 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 03.8 shift to Labor 2004 two-party majority: Labor 01.5 2007 two-party majority: Labor 07.7 
2004 enrolment: 92,938 2007 enrolment: 98,182 (+05.6%) Isaacs was created in 1969 (there was an older seat of Isaacs in another part of Melbourne), running down the eastern shore of Port Phillip from Sandringham to Seaford. Later redistribution extended the seat inland to take in part of the Greater Dandenong manufacturing area. Although Isaacs has a fairly high level of median family income, it also has a high proportion of people employed in manufacturing, and a low proportion of people in professional occupations. This would suggest an electorate with a large number of skilled workers, and indeed 24% of its workforce are described as tradespersons or labourers. Isaacs is also a mortgage belt seat, with a high level of families with dependent children and of dwellings being purchased. The electorate's fear of interest rate rises partly explains the large swing against Labor in 2004. Ann Corcoran won the seat for Labor at a 2000 by-election. Corcoran was a compromise candidate from a deadlocked preselection and as a non-factional member she had little party support, and her fate was sealed when she suffered a 9% swing at the 2004 election - had it not been for a favourable redistribution, she would have been defeated. In 2006 she was dropped in favour of leading barrister Mark Dreyfus. In 2007 Dreyfus gained a 6.2% swing, restoring Labor's position in the seat. Labor polled 79% of the two-party vote at Dandenong South, and also topped 70% at Chandler, Coomoora, Douglas, Noble Park and Southvale. The Liberals polled 60% at Patterson Lakes. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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