By Esther Lauaki
Werribee’s safe Labor seat could be on shaky ground as a result of the scrapped “super-city” proposal, according to a recent poll.
Polling of 500 voters in Tim Pallas’ seat of Werribee showed overwhelming support for the $30 billion Australian Education City.
And 44 per cent of those surveyed over the phone in recent weeks said they would be less likely to vote for a local member who opposed the plan.
In July, the government withdrew its support for the proposal to build a hi-tech super city in the East Werribee Employment Precinct.
The Australian Education City, driven by a consortium that had gained preferred bidder status, aimed to eventually create 90,000 new jobs and support 55,000 students and 70,000 residents with a new business district offering international education, training and research facilities.
The consortium this month launched legal action to claim compensation as a result of the project being overturned.
OmniPoll Market Research co-partner Martin O’Shannessy said it was rare to see such clear results for a commercial issue.
“This is a campaignable issue – the more people know about it [the super-city], the more they want it,” Mr O’Shannessy said.
“It’s an important voting issue for these people … our poll said that voters were more likely to vote for a local member if they supported the education city, and it didn’t matter what their political persuasion was.”
Figures showed that just eight per cent of those surveyed would be likely to vote for their local member if they opposed the project.
Of the respondents, 79 per cent believed that the Australian Education City should go ahead and regarded the proposal as an important issue.
Mr Pallas held the seat of Werribee comfortably at last year’s state election, but there was an 11.2 per cent swing against him on primary votes, forcing the ALP to rely on preferences.
Star Weekly contacted Tim Pallas for comment.
