| Richmond Australian House of Representatives Division |
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|---|---|
Division of Richmond (green) within New South Wales |
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| Created: | 1901 |
| MP: | Justine Elliot |
| Party: | Labor |
| Namesake: | Richmond River |
| Area: | 2,768 km² (1,069 sq mi) |
| Demographic: | Rural |
The Division of Richmond is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the far north-east of the state, along the Pacific coast. It adjoins the Queensland border to the north, and encompasses the towns of Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.
The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. Historically, it was traditionally been a rural seat and fairly safe for the National Party, which held it for all but six years from 1922 to 2004. It was held by three generations of the Anthony family, the first three-generation dynasty in the Australian House of Representatives. However, strong population growth has seen it progressively lose its rural territory to become a more urbanised coastal division, and demographic change has made the seat marginally Labor in recent years.
Besides the Anthony family, the division was also held by former Nationals leader Charles Blunt. His tenure was short-lived, however. Just months after becoming leader of the Nationals, he was thrown from office in the 1990 election when the preferences of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott allowed Labor challenger Neville Newell to defeat him despite only winning 27 percent of first preferences. It was only the second time a major party leader had lost his own seat in an election.
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Ewing | Protectionist | 1901–1909 | |
| Commonwealth Liberal | 1909–1910 | ||
| Walter Massy-Greene | Commonwealth Liberal | 1910–1916 | |
| Nationalist | 1916–1922 | ||
| Roland Green | Country | 1922–1937 | |
| Larry Anthony (senior) | Country | 1937–1957 | |
| Doug Anthony | Country | 1957–1975 | |
| National Country | 1975–1982 | ||
| National | 1982–1984 | ||
| Charles Blunt | National | 1984–1990 | |
| Neville Newell | Labor | 1990–1996 | |
| Larry Anthony | National | 1996–2004 | |
| Justine Elliot | Labor | 2004–present | |
| Australian federal election, 2010: Richmond | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labor | Justine Elliot | 31,679 | 39.19 | -4.62 | |
| National | Alan Hunter | 17,146 | 21.21 | -15.77 | |
| Liberal | Joan van Lieshout | 15,424 | 19.08 | +19.08 | |
| Greens | Joe Ebono | 13,056 | 16.15 | +1.22 | |
| Independent | Julie Boyd | 940 | 1.16 | +1.16 | |
| Independent | Matthew Hartley | 805 | 1.00 | +1.00 | |
| Independent | Stephen Hegedus | 747 | 0.92 | +0.92 | |
| Independent | Nic Faulkner | 536 | 0.66 | +0.66 | |
| Democrats | David Robinson | 502 | 0.62 | +0.62 | |
| Total formal votes | 80,835 | 94.45 | -1.27 | ||
| Informal votes | 4,752 | 5.55 | +1.27 | ||
| Turnout | 85,587 | 92.64 | -1.85 | ||
| Two-candidate preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Justine Elliot | 46,071 | 56.99 | -1.88 | |
| National | Alan Hunter | 34,764 | 43.01 | +1.88 | |
| Labor hold | Swing | -1.88 | |||
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