Division of Wills

Wills Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wills (green) in Victoria
Created:	1949
MP:	Kelvin Thomson
Party:	Labor
Namesake:	William Wills
Area:	57 km² (22 sq mi)
Demographic:	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division of Victoria. It is currently held by the Australian Labor Party's Kelvin Thomson.

The electorate encompasses many of the suburbs in the City of Moreland in Melbourne's north, including Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner, Glenroy, and Essendon Airport. It was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame.

Wills has historically been one of the safest Labor seats in the country. Currently, it is Labor's second-safest seat (behind neighboring Gellibrand), with a 22 per cent swing required for the Liberals to win it. It has been in Labor hands for its entire existence except between the 1992 by-election and 1996, when it was held by independent Phil Cleary. Its highest-profile member was former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the Crown from standing for election). No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Bill Bryson	Labor	1949–1955
		Labor (Anti-Communist)	1955–1955
	Gordon Bryant	Labor	1955–1980
	Bob Hawke	Labor	1980–1992
	Phil Cleary	Independent	1992–1996
	Kelvin Thomson	Labor	1996–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Wills

Australian federal election, 2010: Wills
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Kelvin Thomson	43,718	51.81	-5.08
	Liberal	Claude Tomisich	20,080	23.79	-0.76
	Greens	Mark Riley	17,381	20.60	+6.78
	Family First	Daniel Mumby	1,320	1.56	+0.13
	Democrats	Paul Roberton	734	0.87	-1.46
	Socialist Alliance	Trent Hawkins	726	0.86	+0.14
	CEC	Craig Isherwood	429	0.51	+0.25
Total formal votes			84,388	93.98	-1.69
Informal votes			5,403	6.02	+1.69
Turnout			89,791	91.07	-2.60
Two-candidate preferred result
	Labor	Kelvin Thomson	61,297	72.64	+0.24
	Liberal	Claude Tomisich	23,091	27.36	-0.24
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.24

References

• Division of Wills, Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 37°43′44″S 144°56′35″E / 37.729°S 144.943°E / -37.729; 144.943