Division of Hunter

Hunter Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Hunter in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1901
MP	Joel Fitzgibbon
Party	Labor
Namesake	John Hunter
Electors	113,469 (2016)
Area	10,640 km^2 (4,108.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Hunter is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The Division was named after Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales.

The division is located in northern rural New South Wales, and covers about 36 percent of the Hunter Region, including the towns of Singleton, Muswellbrook, Cessnock and Denman. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first federal election.

The Member for the Division of Hunter, since the 1996 federal election, is Joel Fitzgibbon, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

2015 proposed abolition

In 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the federation seat of Hunter. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales was to lose a seat while Western Australia was to gain an extra seat. Electors in the north of Hunter were to join New England. The roughly 40 percent remainder were to become part of Paterson, with the Liberal margin calculated to be notionally reduced from 9.8 percent to just 0.5 percent as a result. Since the Commission's guidelines require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible, the commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter.^[1][2][3]

The final plan, however, saw Charlton abolished, with Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory.^[4] While most of the new Hunter's voters come from the old Charlton, as previously mentioned, Commission guidelines required the name of Hunter to be retained.^[5] The Labor incumbent for Charlton, Pat Conroy, opted to contest neighbouring Shortland in order to allow Fitzgibbon to contest the new Hunter.

History

The seat has been in Labor hands since 1910, and for most of that time has been reasonably safe for that party. The Hunter Region has been one of the few country areas where Labor has consistently done well. Among its notable members have been Prime Minister Edmund Barton, former Labor Leaders Matthew Charlton and Dr H. V. Evatt, and Joel Fitzgibbon, who was a minister in the first and second Rudd governments. The seat became somewhat marginal in 1984 when much of its territory was shifted to the newly created Charlton, but since 1990 Labor has never tallied less than 53 percent of the two-party vote.

The seat has been held by two father-son combinations. Rowley James held the seat from 1928 to 1958 before giving it up for Evatt, who was in danger of losing his Sydney-area seat of Barton and wanted a friendlier seat in which to run. Evatt was succeeded after one term by Rowley James' son, Bert, who held it until 1980. Eric Fitzgibbon won the seat in 1984, handing it to his son and current member, Joel, in 1996.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	(Sir) Edmund Barton	Protectionist	1901–1903
	Frank Liddell	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1903–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
	Matthew Charlton	Labor	1910–1928
	Rowley James	Labor	1928–1931
		Lang Labor	1931–1936
		Labor	1936–1958
	H. V. Evatt	Labor	1958–1960
	Bert James	Labor	1960–1980
	Bob Brown	Labor	1980–1984
	Eric Fitzgibbon	Labor	1984–1996
	Joel Fitzgibbon	Labor	1996–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2016: Hunter^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labor	Joel Fitzgibbon	49,962	51.79	+7.08
	National	Ruth Rogers	25,409	26.34	+9.65
	Greens	Peter Morris	6,842	7.09	+1.00
	Independent	John Harvey	4,740	4.91	+4.91
	Christian Democrats	Richard Stretton	3,260	3.38	+0.79
	Independent	Cordelia Troy	3,216	3.33	+3.33
	Independent	John Warham	1,934	2.00	+2.00
	Independent	Arjay Martin	1,103	1.14	+1.14
Total formal votes			96,466	92.12	−1.26
Informal votes			8,249	7.88	+1.26
Turnout			104,715	92.29	−0.51
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Joel Fitzgibbon	60,255	62.46	+6.78
	National	Ruth Rogers	36,211	37.54	−6.78
	Labor hold		Swing	+6.78

References

1. "Australian Electoral Commission to abolish Federal NSW seat of Hunter". ABC News. Australia. 16 October 2015.
2. "Draft federal redistribution of New South Wales". Poll Bludger, Crikey. 16 October 2015.
3. "Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon loses his seat in redistribution by Australian Electoral Commission". The Age. 16 October 2015.
4. Green, Antony. "Hunter". ABC Election Guide 2016. Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
5. "NSW federal redistribution 2015". ABC News. Australia.
6. Hunter, NSW, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission.

External links

• Division of Hunter - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 32°22′30″S 150°46′41″E / 32.375°S 150.778°E