Electoral district of Collie-Preston

Collie-Preston Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1901–present
Namesake	Collie, Preston River
Area	4,354 km^2 (1,681.1 sq mi)
Demographic	South West

Collie-Preston is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. While the seat was known as Collie for just over a century of its existence as an electorate, the seat was known as South West Mining from 1901 to 1904, and Collie-Wellington from 2005 to 2008. It is named for the South West coal mining town of Collie. While historically a very safe seat for the Labor Party, redistributions in 1988 and 2007 due to increases in the quota for country seats which had historically been malapportioned resulted in the seat incorporating surrounding rural shires which were hostile to Labor, and in 2008, the seat is rated as marginal Labor by Antony Green, favouring Labor by 0.9% on present numbers.^[1]

History

Collie was originally created as the seat of "South West Mining" in the Constitution Act Amendment Act 1899, the last redistribution of seats to require a modification of the Constitution.^[2] It was first contested at the 1901 election. In 1904, it was renamed "Collie" with almost no changes to its boundaries.^[3] In the Redistribution of Seats Act 1911, its boundaries were so unusually contorted by the then-Liberal government, which was accused of trying to lock Labor votes in Premier Frank Wilson's marginal seat of Sussex behind Collie's boundaries, that the Kalgoorlie Miner and other newspapers used the seat's map as an effective mascot for the bill. However, the boundaries remained unchanged until a later redistribution ahead of the 1930 election.

The seat changed hands three times between the Liberal member John Ewing and his Labor rivals, but the seat was securely Labor from the 1908 election and for 81 years continuously remained a Labor seat, with only three members during that time—Arthur Wilson until 1947, then Harry May until 1968 and Tom Jones until 1989.^[4]

In 1986, the seat had 9,410 enrolled voters compared with an average of 13,796 statewide and over 28,000 in some metropolitan electorates such as Joondalup and Murdoch. The Burke Labor government's Acts Amendment (Electoral Reform) Act 1987, passed with National Party support, increased metropolitan representation from 29 to 34 out of 57 seats, and the 1988 redistribution which resulted in Collie gaining parts of Dale and Warren combined with a significant statewide swing against the Labor Party delivered the seat to the Nationals' Dr Hilda Turnbull, who held the seat until the 2001 election. Labor's Mick Murray, head of the Country Labor grouping in Western Australia, gained the seat on his third attempt with a margin of just 34 votes.

In the 2003 redistribution, the seat was renamed Collie-Wellington when it lost its southern and eastern sections and incorporated large sections of Waroona and Harvey which had been part of Murray-Wellington. The 2007 redistribution renamed the seat Collie-Preston and largely reversed the 2003 redistribution, but adding the coastal section of the Shire of Capel which brought in residents on the fringes of metropolitan Bunbury.

Geography

Collie-Preston presently includes the Shires of Collie, Capel, Donnybrook-Balingup and Dardanup. It includes the Bunbury suburbs of Dalyellup, Eaton and Millbridge, the towns of Balingup, Boyanup, Burekup, Capel, Collie, Dardanup, Donnybrook and Kirup.^[5]

The seat has changed many times through its history. In the 1950s, the seat was limited to the region around Collie itself and mining areas within the Shire of West Arthur. By 1968, the seat consisted of the Shires of Collie, Donnybrook-Balingup and Boyup Brook districts, and from 1976 to 1982 also included Dardanup. The 1988 redistribution added Boddington from the abolished Dale, as well as the Greenbushes district from Warren. The 1994 redistribution added Dardanup and eastern Capel, including Boyanup but excluding Eaton and the coastal regions. Ahead of the state election, only Collie and Dardanup were retained, with the seat gaining Waroona and most of Harvey (excluding Australind and other urban districts which were part of Leschenault).

The 2007 redistribution, which took effect at the 2008 election, brought back Dardanup and Donnybrook-Balingup, but also added Capel from the abolished Capel district, and the Bunbury suburb of Eaton from the abolished Leschenault. This change rendered Collie a marginal Labor seat, with Labor's 81.7% two-party-preferred vote across the six booths in the town of Collie contrasting with the Liberals' 60.1% two-party-preferred vote across the three outer Bunbury booths.^[6] With the rural districts generally historically preferring Liberal candidates—62.7% at the 2005 election and 61.9% at the 2007 federal election—the seat has been rated by Antony Green as marginal Labor with a margin of 0.9% going into the election.^[1]

Members for Collie

South-West Mining
Member		Party	Term
	John Ewing		1901–1904
Collie
	Ernest Henshaw	Labor	1904–1905
	John Ewing	Ministerial	1905–1908
	Arthur Wilson	Labor	1908–1947
	Harry May	Labor	1947–1968
	Tom Jones	Labor	1968–1989
	Dr Hilda Turnbull	National	1989–2001
	Mick Murray	Labor	2001–2005
Collie-Wellington
	Mick Murray	Labor	2005–2008
Collie-Preston
	Mick Murray	Labor	2008–present

Election results

Western Australian state election, 2013: Collie-Preston^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Mick Murray	8,708	43.2	-1.0
	Liberal	Jaimee Motion	8,250	40.9	+3.6
	WA Nationals	Peter Hutchinson	1,513	7.5	+7.5
	Greens WA	Kingsley Gibson	1,010	5.0	-2.9
	Family First	Alice Harper	529	2.6	-5.3
		Clinton Knop	158	0.8	+0.8
Total formal votes			20,168	95.0	-0.6
Informal votes			1,069	5.0	+0.6
Turnout			21,237	91.72
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Mick Murray	10,108	50.1	-3.7
	Liberal	Jaimee Motion	10,052	49.9	+3.7
	Labor hold		Swing	-3.7

References

1. Green, Antony. "2007 Western Australia Redistribution". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2008-08-13.
2. Government of Western Australia (1899). "Constitution Act Amendment Act (63 Vict No 19)". Statutes of Western Australia, 1899. pp. 227–257. Given assent on 16 December 1899.
3. Government of Western Australia (1904). "Redistribution of Seats Act (No 21 of 1904)". Statutes of Western Australia, 1903-1904. pp. 515–540. Given assent on 16 January 1904.
4. Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890-1996. Perth: Parliamentary History Project and Western Australian Electoral Commission. pp. 64–68. ISBN 0-7309-8409-5.
5. Western Australian Electoral Commission (29 October 2007). "2007 Electoral Distribution - Final Boundaries - South West Region - Collie-Preston". Retrieved 2008-08-05.
6. The statistical returns for 2005 show 3,648 out of 4,466 voters preferred Labor at Allanson, Wilson Park and the four Collie booths, and 2,983 out of 4,683 voters preferred Liberal at Dalyellup, Eaton and Gelorup booths.
7. "Collie-Preston District Results". Western Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 March 2013.

External links

• Electorate Profile (Antony Green, ABC)