Division of Werriwa

Werriwa
Australian House of Representatives Division

Division of Werriwa in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created 1901
MP Anne Stanley
Party Labor
Namesake Lake George (Aboriginal name)
Electors 108,593 (2016)
Area 172 km2 (66.4 sq mi)
Demographic Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Werriwa is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The name Werriwa derives from a local Aboriginal name for Lake George, which was located in the division when it was established in 1900. The division was one of the original 75 divisions first contested at the first federal election.

Werriwa now covers an area in south-west Sydney, including the suburbs of Ashcroft, Austral, Bonnyrigg Heights, Busby, Carnes Hill, Cartwright, Casula, Cecil Hills, Edmondson Park, Glenfield, Green Valley, Heckenberg, Hinchinbrook, Horningsea Park, Hoxton Park, Long Point, Lurnea, Macquarie Fields, Macquarie Links, Middleton Grange, Miller, Minto, Prestons, Sadleir, and West Hoxton; as well as parts of Badgerys Creek, Bonnyrigg, Bringelly, Cecil Park, Denham Court, Ingleburn, Kemps Creek, Leppington, Mount Pritchard, and Rossmore.

The current Member for Werriwa, since the 2016 federal election, is Anne Stanley, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

History

Originally, Werriwa was a large and mostly rural electorate that stretched from southwest Sydney to the northern part of what is now the ACT, and included the Southern Highlands, Goulburn and part of the South West Slopes. In succeeding years following its establishment, with demographic change and electoral redistributions, Werriwa began to shrink and from 1913 onwards no longer contained Lake George. It underwent several other major changes to its borders over the years. The 1949 expansion of Parliament saw Werriwa lose most of its remaining rural territory to the newly created Division of Macarthur and move to approximately its current position in southwest Sydney, over 150 kilometres (93 mi) away from Lake George. However, it has retained the name of Werriwa, primarily as it is an original Federation electorate—the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines on electoral redistributions require it to preserve the names of original Federation electorates where possible.[1]

It is a very safe seat for Labor, which has held it continuously since 1934 and for all but nine years since 1906.

Werriwa is best remembered for being the electorate of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, who held it from 1952 to 1978. It was represented from 1994 to 2005 by one of Whitlam's former aides, Mark Latham, the leader of the ALP and Leader of the Opposition from 2003 to 2005. It more recent times, a by-election in March 2005 resulted in Labor's Chris Hayes elected with over 55% of the vote, in a 16-candidate race which saw no other candidate poll above 8%.

Members

MemberPartyTerm
  Alfred Conroy Free Trade 1901–1906
  David Hall Labour 1906–1912
  Benjamin Bennett Labour 1912–1913
  Alfred Conroy Commonwealth Liberal 1913–1914
  John Lynch Labor 1914–1916
  National Labor 1916–1917
  Nationalist 1917–1918
  Bert Lazzarini Labor 1919–1931
  Lang Labor 1931–1931
  Walter McNicoll Country 1931–1934
  Bert Lazzarini Lang Labor 1934–1936
  Labor 1936–1952
  Gough Whitlam Labor 1952–1978
  John Kerin Labor 1978–1994
  Mark Latham Labor 1994–2005
  Chris Hayes Labor 2005–2010
  Laurie Ferguson Labor 2010–2016
  Anne Stanley Labor 2016–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2016: Werriwa[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Anne Stanley 46,596 52.14 +2.81
Liberal Ned Mannoun 32,670 36.56 +0.51
Christian Democrats Daniel Edwards 5,986 6.70 +2.49
Greens Signe Westerberg 4,109 4.60 +1.36
Total formal votes 89,361 91.24 +4.88
Informal votes 8,581 8.76 −4.88
Turnout 97,942 90.19 +1.74
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Anne Stanley 52,005 58.20 +1.67
Liberal Ned Mannoun 37,356 41.80 −1.67
Labor hold Swing +1.67

References

  1. "Guidelines for naming divisions". Australian Electoral Commission. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  2. Werriwa, NSW, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission.

External links

Coordinates: 33°58′52″S 150°50′35″E / 33.981°S 150.843°E / -33.981; 150.843

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