Division of Mitchell

Mitchell Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Mitchell in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1949
MP	Alex Hawke
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Sir Thomas Mitchell
Electors	102,453 (2016)
Area	101 km² (39.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Mitchell is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division is named after Major Thomas Mitchell, surveyor and explorer who was the first European to explore large areas of New South Wales and Victoria. The division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 11 May 1949, and was first contested at the 1949 federal election.

The division is located in the north-west suburbs of Sydney, and includes the entire suburbs of Baulkham Hills, Beaumont Hills, Bella Vista, Box Hill, Kellyville, Nelson, and Winston Hills. The division also includes parts of Castle Hill, Glenhaven, Maraylya, North Rocks, Northmead, Old Toongabbie, Rouse Hill, and West Pennant Hills.

The current Member for Mitchell, since the 2007 federal election, is Alex Hawke, a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

History

The majority of the electorate is fairly conservative, and it has been a safe seat for the Liberals for most of its existence. Labor has won it twice, for one term each. Labor last won it in 1972 in the swing that brought Gough Whitlam to power. However, proving this seat's conservative nature, the Liberals took it back in 1974 and have held it without serious difficulty since then. The seat includes most of the Hills District, a region with a large evangelical Christian population that has pushed the seat further to the right. However, the southernmost suburbs of North Rocks, Northmead and Winston Hills are located in the Parramatta local government area, and share that LGA's bellwether tendencies. They been won by Labor at high-tide elections such as at the 2007 federal election. After the 2013 federal election, Mitchell replaced nearby Bradfield as the safest Coalition seat in metropolitan Australia, with Labor needing a 22-point swing to win it.^[1]

Members

	Party	Term
Roy Wheeler	Liberal	1949–1961
John Armitage	Labor	1961–1963
Les Irwin	Liberal	1963–1972
Alfred Ashley-Brown	Labor	1972–1974
Alan Cadman	Liberal	1974–2007
Alex Hawke	Liberal	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Mitchell

Australian federal election, 2016: Mitchell^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Alex Hawke	55,168	60.49	−4.33
	Labor	Andrew Punch	22,440	24.61	+3.53
	Greens	Michael Bellstedt	7,287	7.99	+1.58
	Christian Democrats	Darryl Allen	6,303	6.91	+3.70
Total formal votes			91,198	95.49	+1.90
Informal votes			4,308	4.51	−1.90
Turnout			95,506	93.22	−1.54
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Alex Hawke	61,847	67.82	−3.57
	Labor	Andrew Punch	29,351	32.18	+3.57
	Liberal hold		Swing	−3.57

References

↑ "House of Representatives - Two party preferred by division". Virtual Tally Room, Election 2013. Australian Electoral Commission. 4 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
↑ Mitchell, NSW, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission.

External links

Division of Mitchell - Australian Electoral Commission

Electoral divisions of the Australian House of Representatives in New South Wales

Banks Barton Bennelong Berowra Blaxland Bradfield Calare Chifley Cook Cowper Cunningham Dobell Eden-Monaro Farrer Fowler Gilmore Grayndler Greenway Hughes Hume Hunter Kingsford Smith Lindsay Lyne Macarthur Mackellar Macquarie McMahon Mitchell New England Newcastle North Sydney Page Parkes Parramatta Paterson Reid Richmond Riverina Robertson Shortland Sydney Warringah Watson Wentworth Werriwa Whitlam Abolished: Barrier Bland Canobolas Charlton Cook (1906–55) Dalley Darling Dundas East Sydney Evans Gwydir Illawarra Lang Lawson Lowe Martin Nepean Parkes (1901–69) Phillip Prospect Riverina-Darling St George South Sydney Throsby Watson (1934–69) West Sydney

Divisions in: New South Wales Victoria Queensland Western Australia South Australia Tasmania Australian Capital and Northern Territories

Coordinates: 33°42′36″S 150°57′36″E / 33.710°S 150.960°E / -33.710; 150.960

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.