Division of Hunter

Hunter Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Hunter in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1901
MP	Joel Fitzgibbon
Party	Labor
Namesake	John Hunter
Electors	121,560 (2019)
Area	10,640 km2 (4,108.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Hunter is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. The division was named after Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales. It covers rural, regional and suburban areas centred on the Hunter Region, including the towns of Singleton, Muswellbrook and Cessnock. It also extends into parts of Greater Newcastle, covering suburbs such as Cameron Park, Edgeworth, Toronto and Morisset.

The current member since the 1996 federal election, is Joel Fitzgibbon, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

History[]

John Hunter, the division's namesake

The seat has been in Labor hands since 1910, and for most of that time has been reasonably safe for that party. The Hunter Region has been one of the few areas outside of capital cities where Labor has consistently done well. Among its notable members have been first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, former Labor Leaders Matthew Charlton and Dr H.V. Evatt, and Joel Fitzgibbon, who was a minister in the first and second Rudd governments.

The seat has been held by two father-son combinations. Rowley James held the seat from 1928 to 1958 before giving it up for Evatt, who was in danger of losing his Sydney-area seat of Barton and wanted a friendlier seat in which to run. Evatt was succeeded after one term by Rowley James' son, Bert, who held it until 1980. Eric Fitzgibbon won the seat in 1984, handing it to his son and current member, Joel, in 1996.

Two-party vote count[]

Hunter had become somewhat marginal in the 1980s when much of its territory was shifted to the newly created Charlton. Since 1990, Labor has never tallied less than 53 percent of the two-party-preferred vote. Labor's worst two-party-preferred vote was 52.4% in 1984 and best result when challenged by an opposing center-right candidate was 80.6% in 1961.

First-preference vote count[]

Labor's worst first-preference vote was in 2019, when the current member won only 37.5% of the primary vote; the previous 100-year worst being 44.5% in 2013, again by the incumbent member. Labor's best primary vote was a thumping 76.9% in 1946. As of 2019, the Division of Hunter is considered a marginal seat.

2015 proposed abolition[]

In 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the federation seat of Hunter. Due to changing populations, overall, New South Wales was to lose a seat while Western Australia was to gain an extra seat. Electors in the north of Hunter were to join New England. The roughly 40 percent remainder were to become part of Paterson, with the Liberal margin calculated to be notionally reduced from 9.8 percent to just 0.5 percent as a result. Since the Commission's guidelines require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible, the commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter.^[1][2][3][4] Effectively, this meant that Charlton was abolished, and Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory.^[5][6] Although most voters of the new Hunter division came from the former Charlton division, the Labor incumbent Pat Conroy, brokered a factional deal to contest neighbouring Shortland in order to allow Fitzgibbon to continue to represent the new Hunter division.

Members[]

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		(Sir) Edmund Barton (1849–1920)	Protectionist	30 March 1901 – 30 September 1903	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Hastings and Macleay. Served as Prime Minister from 1901 to 1903. Resigned in order to become a Justice of the High Court
		Frank Liddell (1862–1939)	Free Trade	16 December 1903 – 1906	Lost seat
			Anti-Socialist	1906 – 26 May 1909
			Commonwealth Liberal	26 May 1909 – 13 April 1910
		Matthew Charlton (1866–1948)	Labor	13 April 1910 – 9 October 1928	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Northumberland. Served as Opposition Leader from 1922 to 1928. Retired
		Rowley James (1885–1962)	Labor	9 October 1928 – 27 March 1931	Retired. Son was Bert James
			Labor (NSW)	27 March 1931 – February 1936
			Labor	February 1936 – 14 October 1958
		Dr. H.V. Evatt (1894–1965)	Labor	22 November 1958 – 10 February 1960	Previously held the Division of Barton. Served as Opposition Leader from 1951 to 1960. Resigned in order to become Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
		Bert James (1914–2006)	Labor	9 April 1960 – 19 September 1980	Retired. Father was Rowley James
		Bob Brown (1933–)	Labor	18 October 1980 – 1 December 1984	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Cessnock. Transferred to the Division of Charlton
		Eric Fitzgibbon (1936–2015)	Labor	1 December 1984 – 29 January 1996	Retired. Son is Joel Fitzgibbon
		Joel Fitzgibbon (1962–)	Labor	2 March 1996 – present	Served as minister under Rudd. Served as Chief Government Whip in the House under Gillard. Incumbent. Father was Eric Fitzgibbon

Election results[]

References[]

External links[]

• Division of Hunter - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 32°22′30″S 150°46′41″E / 32.375°S 150.778°E / -32.375; 150.778