| Oxley |
Division of Page | Parkes |
 Janelle Saffin (ALP) Her electorate website |  |
Location: North Coast: Ballina, Casino, Grafton, Lismore Division named for: Rt Hon Sir Earle Page, Leader of the Country Party 1920-39 and Prime Minister of Australia 1939 Median weekly family income: $658 (144th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 2.6% (142nd highest) Persons in professional occupations: 24.6% (81st highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 17.8% (8th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 33.8% (125th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 20.3% (125th highest) Sitting member: Janelle Saffin (Labor), elected 2007 Born 1 November 1954, Queensland. Career: Educated Northern Rivers CAE, Macquarie Universit. Schoolteacher, solicitor. Member NSW Legislative Council 1995-2003. 1996 two-party majority: National 04.3 1998 two-party majority: National 02.4 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 01.0 shift to National 2001 two-party majority: National 02.8 2004 two-party majority: National 04.2 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 01.3 shift to National 2007 notional two-party majority: National 05.5 2007 two-party majority: Labor 02.4 
2004 enrolment: 85,019 2007 enrolment: 93,426 (+09.9%) (new boundaries) Page was created in 1984 from parts of the federation electorates of Richmond and Cowper, and is based on the regional centres of Grafton and Lismore. It has one of the country's lowest levels of median family income, reflecting its economic base of farming and low-wage tourism jobs, plus its large population of retired over-65s. Its ageing population is also shown by its low levels of families with dependent children and of dwellings being purchased. These factors make Page more politically marginal than most rural seats are these days. Page's first member was Ian Robinson, a National Party veteran who had held Cowper since 1963. Like many country members, he stayed on too long, and in 1990 he was unexpectedly defeated by Labor's Harry Woods, who was greatly helped by the aftermath of the National Party's "Joh for Canberra" fiasco. Woods hung on in 1993, but was predictably defeated in 1996 by the Nationals candidate, former state minister Ian Causley. (Woods then stood for the by-election caused by Causley's resignation from the state parliament, and won.) Causley had reasonable expectations of ministerial office in the Howard government, but had to be content with the dignified post of Deputy Speaker, and retired in 2007. National Party seats are always vulnerable when sitting members retire, and so it proved here, since Labor's Janelle Saffin, a former state upper house member, won the seat with a 7.9% swing. Labor polled 80% of the two-party vote at Cawongla (a "hippy haven"), and the Labor two-party vote also topped 60% at four booths in Lismore, Casino High, Dundurrabin, Horseshoe Creek, Nymboida, Pound Hill and Whiporie. The Nationals polled 68% at Baryulgil. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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