Fed: Beazley admits tough fight to hold Werriwa

AAP General News (Australia)
02-01-2005
Fed: Beazley admits tough fight to hold Werriwa

MELBOURNE, Feb 1 AAP - Federal Opposition Leader Kim Beazley today admitted Labor would
have a struggle to retain Mark Latham's Sydney seat of Werriwa.

Mr Beazley was responding to private Labor Party polling, conducted last week before
he took over the party's leadership, showing that the ALP would have lost a byelection
in Werriwa, which it has held since 1934.

Mr Latham won the seat, considered Labor heartland, by a margin of 9.3 per cent in
last year's federal election.

"In case you haven't noticed we've had a pretty rough time over the course of the last
little while from the last election onwards, actually from before then," Mr Beazley told
reporters in Melbourne today.

He said if it was his choice he would have preferred to have a by-election later in
the government's term.

"I think and I hope that the people of Werriwa comprehend that it's a product of a
very genuine reason and that is the illness of the sitting member.

"I was out in Werriwa over the weekend and people were friendly in their response but
they also had issues."

Asked if he feared Labor would lose the seat, Mr Beazley said: "You always fight to
win but it's going to be hard circumstances."

No date has been set for the byelection.

Details of the private poll were reported in today's Sydney Morning Herald.

AAP nl/szp/gfr/sp

KEYWORD: POLL NSW WERRIWA BEAZLEY

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