Federal election 2016: Swan cannot be counted as safe: Steve Irons

The suburbs just across the river from Perth’s CDB have become more Liberal yet MP Steve Irons considers Swan at risk.

Swan’s sitting MP Steve Irons in East Victoria Park, across from Perth’s CBD. Picture: Colin Murty

The suburbs just across the river from Perth’s central business district have become more Liberal over the past nine years but sitting MP Steve Irons knows his seat of Swan is at risk on July 2.

New boundaries have sheared Labor-voting suburbs in the city’s south from Swan and boosted Mr Irons’s margin from 6.5 per cent to a notional 7.3 per cent.

But that is the exact size of the swing predicted by the latest federal Newspoll in Western Australia. Swan is neck and neck.

The plummeting popularity of the ­Liberal Barnett government has helped redefine what a safe seat is in the state. “I think in this election anything under 10 per cent is in play,” Mr Irons said.

Mr Irons’s Labor challenger is human rights lawyer Tammy ­Solonec, a Greens candidate at the 2013 state election who has never voted for the ALP.

Ms Solonec is a Nigena woman born in the far-north Kimberley region. On leave from her job with Amnesty International to ­campaign for Swan, she explained her shift from the Greens to Labor by saying her strong social justice ­beliefs aligned with the ALP.

“When people are young and idealistic, I think they go where their heart is, but I’m now really enjoying being part of Labor,” she told The Australian after preselect­ion. “And I think we are all entitled to experiment with different things and to change our mind.”

Ms Solonec and Mr Irons clashed last week when she told the ABC she was a multicultural woman and a sole parent who understood the struggles of everyday people while he was “a rich white man”, a reference to Mr Irons’s background as the owner of an airconditioning business.

She appeared to be unaware that Mr Irons had also been a sole parent — the son he raised is now 23 — and that Mr Irons became a ward of the state at six months of age and later was raised by foster parents.

Mr Irons initially responded by saying the electorate did not know Ms Solonec.

Now he says that the ­candid­ates’ personal ­stories should be ­peripheral.

“We have to focus on the ­people who are our constituents, not on ourselves,” Mr Irons said.

The Swan constituents are a ­diverse bunch — close to the centre of Perth, they are professionals with riverside homes near some of the city’s elite private schools.

Further out, the suburb of ­Belmont near Perth airport has higher percentages of state housing and many more residents on lower incomes or Centrelink benefits. On her campaign ­website, Ms Solonec says she wants to contribute to a fairer ­society that provides equal opportunity for all and ­rewards ingenuity and hard work.

The Australian has been told Labor’s $12 billion commitment to roll back the Medicare freeze is well received in the lower-income suburbs of Swan.

In April last year, when dissatisfaction with then prime minister Tony Abbott was high, Labor was hopeful of winning Swan.

Internal polling at the time showed preferences, allocated ­according to how those surveyed would vote, giving Labor a 54.7 per cent to 45.3 per cent lead in Swan.

But the party is more circumspect now.

Labor is running a full campaign in Swan, but senior ALP MPs consider the 7.3 per cent swing a big challenge.