- Division of Macquarie
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Macquarie
Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Macquarie (green) within New South WalesCreated: 1901 MP: Louise Markus Party: Liberal Namesake: Lachlan Macquarie Area: 4,374 km² (1,689 sq mi) Demographic: Provincial The Division of Macquarie is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for Lachlan Macquarie, who was Governor of New South Wales between 1810 and 1821. Its best known member is Ben Chifley (ALP), who was Australian Prime Minister from 1945 to 1949.
It is located to the west of Sydney, and today it covers a large part of the Blue Mountains, as well as the Hawkesbury region on Sydney's western fringe. Voting patterns within the electorate vary significantly between these two areas. The two-party preferred vote favoured the Liberal candidate by more than 70:30 in the Hawkesbury region at the 2004 Federal election. The result was partially reversed in the Blue Mountains where the result was approximately 60:40, favouring the Labor candidate. This voting pattern was evident in the three previous Federal elections up to 2007.
It has changed hands many times during its long history, but in elections previous to 2007 Kerry Bartlett consolidated his 1996 win to make the electorate a fairly safe Liberal seat.
On 13 September 2006 however the Australian Electoral Commission announced that the seat was to be redistributed. The Hawkesbury towns moved to Greenway while Macquarie moved west as far as Bathurst. The seat then contained the rural service and university town of Bathurst and the working-class towns of Lithgow, Portland and Oberon. This restored the seat's connection with Chifley and made it notionally Labor with a majority of 0.5 percent, which was won by former New South Wales Minister for the Environment and Attorney General Bob Debus at the 2007 election on a 7.04 percent margin.
During the 2009 redistribution, however, Bathurst and Lithgow were shifted to Calare, restoring its 2007 boundaries. The redistribution nearly wiped out Labor's majority in the electorate, reducing it to an extremely marginal 0.3 percent. Debus retired before the 2010 election. Louise Markus, previously the member for Greenway, reclaimed the seat for the Liberals in this election.
Members
Member Party Term Sydney Smith Free Trade 1901–1906 Ernest Carr Labor 1906–1916 Nationalist 1916–1917 Samuel Nicholls Labor 1917–1922 Arthur Manning Nationalist 1922–1928 Ben Chifley Labor 1928–1931 John Lawson United Australia 1931–1940 Ben Chifley Labor 1940–1951 Anthony Luchetti Labor 1951–1975 Reg Gillard Liberal 1975–1980 Ross Free Labor 1980–1984 Alasdair Webster Liberal 1984–1993 Maggie Deahm Labor 1993–1996 Kerry Bartlett Liberal 1996–2007 Bob Debus Labor 2007–2010 Louise Markus Liberal 2010–present Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the Division of MacquarieAustralian federal election, 2010: Macquarie Party Candidate Votes % ±% Liberal Louise Markus 38,867 44.47 -0.23 Labor Susan Templeman 28,284 32.36 -5.75 Greens Carmel McCallum 12,317 14.09 +3.11 Liberal Democrats Peter Whelan 2,087 2.39 +2.19 Christian Democrats Luke Portelli 1,883 2.15 -0.10 Independent Amy Bell 1,778 2.03 +2.03 Family First Jason Cornelius 922 1.05 -0.02 Australia First John Bates 676 0.77 +0.77 Carers Alliance Terry Tremethick 591 0.68 +0.68 Total formal votes 87,405 94.52 -1.83 Informal votes 5,067 5.48 +1.83 Turnout 92,472 94.78 -1.13 Two-candidate preferred result Liberal Louise Markus 44,801 51.26 +1.54 Labor Susan Templeman 42,604 48.74 -1.54 Liberal gain from Labor Swing +1.54 References
Categories:- Electoral divisions of Australia
- Australian electorates contested at every election
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