Division of Richmond

Richmond Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Richmond (green) within New South Wales
Created	1901
MP	Justine Elliot
Party	Labor
Namesake	Richmond River
Electors	97,379 (2013)^[1]
Area	2,768 km² (1,068.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Richmond is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. The division is named after the area in which it is located,^[2] namely the Richmond Valley and Richmond River, which was named in honour of Charles, the fifth Duke of Richmond.^[3]

The division is located in the far north-east of the state, adjacent to the Coral Sea. It adjoins the Queensland border to the north, and encompasses the towns of Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.

The current Member for Richmond, since the 2004 federal election, is Justine Elliot, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

History

Historically, the division has been a rural seat and fairly safe for the National Party (formerly called the Country Party), which held it for all but six years from 1922 to 2004. For 55 of those years, it was held by three generations of the Anthony family -- Hubert Lawrence Anthony (a minister in the Fadden and Menzies governments), Doug Anthony (leader of the National Party from 1971 to 1984 and Deputy Prime Minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments) and Larry Anthony (a minister in the Howard government) -- the first three-generation dynasty in the Australian House of Representatives.^[4] However, it became far less safe for the Nationals from 1983 onward, and strong population growth over the last three decades has seen it progressively lose its rural territory and reduced it to a more coastal-based and urbanised division. Accompanying demographic change has made the seat friendlier to Labor in more recent years.

The division's most notable member outside of the Anthony family was Charles Blunt, leader of the National Party from 1989 to 1990. His tenure was short-lived, however. Just months after becoming leader of the Nationals, he was defeated in the 1990 election when the preferences of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott allowed Neville Newell to claim the seat for Labor for the first time ever, despite only winning 27 percent of first preferences. It was only the second time that a major party leader had lost his own seat in an election. Larry Anthony (junior) regained the seat for the Nationals in 1996, only to be defeated by Labor's Justine Elliot in 2004 – the first time a member of the Anthony family had been unseated in an election, and the first time the non-Labor parties had been in office without holding Richmond. In 2007, Elliot picked up a large swing as Labor won government, technically making Richmond a safe Labor seat. She retained the seat at the 2010 and the 2013 elections.

Members

	Party	Term
(Sir) Thomas Ewing	Protectionist	1901–1909
(Sir) Thomas Ewing	Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
Walter Massy-Greene	Commonwealth Liberal	1910–1917
Walter Massy-Greene	Nationalist	1917–1922
Roland Green	Country	1922–1937
Larry Anthony, Sr.	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

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Richmond

Australian federal election, 2013: Richmond^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Matthew Fraser	32,066	37.60	+16.39
	Labor	Justine Elliot	28,575	33.51	−5.68
	Greens	Dawn Walker	15,083	17.69	+1.54
	Palmer United	Phil Allen	6,359	7.46	+7.46
	Independent	Kev Skinner	1,971	2.31	+2.31
	Christian Democrats	John Ordish	1,224	1.44	+1.44
Total formal votes			85,278	95.09	+0.64
Informal votes			4,403	4.91	−0.64
Turnout			89,681	92.09	−0.55
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Justine Elliot	45,179	52.98	−4.01
	National	Matthew Fraser	40,099	47.02	+4.01
	Labor hold		Swing	−4.01

References

1 2 "NSW Division - Richmond, NSW". Virtual Tally Room, Election 2013. Australian Electoral Commission. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
↑ "Profile of the electoral division of Richmond (NSW)". Current federal electoral divisions. Australian Electoral Commission. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
↑ "Richmond River". Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
↑ Hogan, Allan (2011). "Dynasties: Anthony". ABC TV. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 November 2013.

External links

Division of Richmond - Australian Electoral Commission

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

Banks Barton Bennelong Berowra Blaxland Bradfield Calare Charlton 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 Throsby Warringah Watson Wentworth Werriwa Abolished: Barrier Bland Canobolas 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 Watson (1934–69) West Sydney

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

Coordinates: 28°30′40″S 153°21′47″E / 28.511°S 153.363°E / -28.511; 153.363

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, October 12, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.