Division of New England

New England Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of New England in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1901
MP	Barnaby Joyce
Party	Nationals
Namesake	New England
Electors	111,979 (2019)
Area	66,394 km2 (25,634.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of New England is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.

History[]

The region of New England, the division's namesake

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. It is named after the New England region in northern New South Wales.

From 1922 to 2001, New England was usually regarded as a comfortably safe seat for the National Party, formerly the Country Party.^[1] Only one Labor candidate has ever won the seat – Frank Foster at the 1906 election and again at the 1910 election, both times on small margins. Since then, the closest Labor has come to winning the seat was in the 1943 landslide, when the Country majority was pared back to an extremely marginal 1.1 percent. It was a marginal seat for most of the 1980s, but since the 1990s Labor has been lucky to get 40 percent of the two-party vote, and has frequently been pushed into third place.

The seat's best-known member was Ian Sinclair, leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989, a minister in the Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments and Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives for a few months in 1998. He was succeeded by Stuart St. Clair in the 1998 election.

St. Clair was then defeated in the 2001 by independent Tony Windsor, who held it until his retirement in 2013.

The member since the 2013 federal election has been former Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the National Party from 2016 to 2018. Amid the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, the seat was declared vacant on 27 October 2017 by the High Court of Australia arising from Joyce's dual citizenship. Joyce had renounced his dual citizenship effective from August in order to become a sole citizen of Australia and was thus eligible to run for federal parliament.^[2] Joyce regained the seat at a by-election on 2 December.^[3]

Boundaries[]

The division is located in the north-east of New South Wales, adjoining the border with Queensland. The 66,394 km² division covers a largely rural area, with agriculture the main industry. From south to north it includes the regional population centres of Scone, Tamworth, Armidale, Glen Innes, Inverell and Tenterfield.

Under the original redistribution proposal in 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission announced it intended to abolish Hunter. Electors in the north of Hunter would have joined New England.^[4] Ultimately however, the Commission opted for a less radical proposal that saw Charlton abolished, Hunter pushed eastward to absorb most of Charlton's territory, and New England absorbing a few small areas in Hunter's north. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales lost a seat while Western Australia gained a seat.^[5]

Members[]

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		William Sawers (1844–1916)	Protectionist	29 March 1901 – 16 December 1903	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth. Lost seat
		Edmund Lonsdale (1843–1913)	Free Trade	16 December 1903 – 1906	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale. Lost seat. Later elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale in 1907
			Anti-Socialist	1906 – 12 December 1906
		Frank Foster (1872–1948)	Labor	12 December 1906 – 31 May 1913	Lost seat
		Percy Abbott (1869–1940)	Commonwealth Liberal	31 May 1913 – 17 February 1917	Retired. Later elected to the Senate in 1925
			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 3 November 1919
		Alexander Hay (1865–1941)	Nationalist	13 December 1919 – 22 January 1920	Lost seat
			Country	22 January 1920 – 19 October 1921
			Independent	19 October 1921 – 16 December 1922
		Victor Thompson (1885–1968)	Country	16 December 1922 – 21 September 1940	Served as minister under Lyons and Page. Lost seat
		Joe Abbott (1891–1965)	Country	21 September 1940 – 31 October 1949	Served as minister under Menzies and Fadden. Retired
		David Drummond (1890–1965)	Country	10 December 1949 – 1 November 1963	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale. Retired
		Ian Sinclair (1929–)	Country	30 November 1963 – 2 May 1975	Previously a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Served as minister under Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon and Fraser. Served as leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989. Served as Speaker during the Howard Government. Retired
			National Country	2 May 1975 – 16 October 1982
			Nationals	16 October 1982 – 31 August 1998
		Stuart St. Clair (1949–)	Nationals	3 October 1998 – 10 November 2001	Lost seat
		Tony Windsor (1950–)	Independent	10 November 2001 – 5 August 2013	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth. Retired
		Barnaby Joyce (1967–)	Nationals	7 September 2013 – present	Previously a member of the Senate. Served as minister under Abbott. Served as minister and Deputy Prime Minister under Turnbull. Incumbent. Currently a minister and Deputy Prime Minister under Morrison

Election results[]

References[]

External links[]

• Division of New England - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 30°19′08″S 151°18′54″E / 30.319°S 151.315°E / -30.319; 151.315