Division of North Sydney
North Sydney Australian House of Representatives Division | |
---|---|
Created | 1901 |
MP | Trent Zimmerman |
Party | Liberal Party |
Namesake | North Sydney |
Electors | 109,278 (2019) |
Area | 53 km2 (20.5 sq mi) |
Demographic | Inner Metropolitan |
The Division of North Sydney is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.
History[]
It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It originally stretched as far as the Northern Beaches, though much of that area became Warringah in 1922.
Second only to the nearby Division of Wentworth, the Division of North Sydney has the nation's second-highest proportion (56.4%) of high-income families.[1] As with all North Shore seats, it has usually been a comfortably safe seat for the Liberal Party of Australia and its predecessors. Labor has usually run dead in the seat, though it came within 3.1 percent of winning it in the 1943 election landslide. North Sydney and Wentworth are the only two federation divisions in New South Wales to have never been held by Labor. It has been held by a member of a non-Labor party for all but six years of its existence, when held by "father of the independents" Ted Mack, from the 1990 election before choosing to resign from federal parliament at the 1996 election, after two terms, for the same reason he previously chose to resign from state parliament after two terms − to avoid receiving a parliamentary pension.[2]
However, during Mack's tenure, North Sydney was always a safe Liberal seat in traditional two-party-preferred match-ups, and it was a foregone conclusion that it would revert to the Liberals once Mack retired. Indeed, when Mack retired in 1996, Joe Hockey reclaimed the seat for the Liberals on a swing large enough to revert the seat to its traditional status as a comfortably safe Liberal seat. Hockey held it easily until 2015, serving as Treasurer from 2013 to 2015 in the Abbott Government. After Abbott was ousted as Liberal leader and Prime Minister by Malcolm Turnbull in the September 2015 Liberal leadership spill Hockey moved to the backbench, but six days later he announced his intention to resign from parliament, taking effect from 23 October. The 2015 North Sydney by-election was held on 5 December to elect his replacement.
Trent Zimmerman, a former Hockey staffer,[3] retained the seat for the Liberal Party with 48.2 percent of the primary vote after a larger-than-predicted 12.8 percent swing against the Turnbull Coalition Government.[4] That was only the second time in North Sydney since federation that the successful Liberal candidate had not obtained a majority of the primary vote and had to rely on preferences. Zimmerman faced a double-digit primary vote swing − more than triple that of the 2015 Canning by-election − even though Labor did not even contest the seat.[1]
The Liberal two-candidate-preferred vote of 60.2 percent against independent Stephen Ruff compares to the previous election vote of 65.9 percent against Labor.[1] The reduction of 5.7 percent could not be considered a "two-party/candidate preferred swing" − when a major party is absent, preference flows to both major parties does not take place, resulting in asymmetric preference flows.[5][6]
Zimmerman became the first openly LGBTI member of the House of Representatives.[4][7]
The most notable member for the seat was Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia from 1915 to 1923, and later a minister in the Lyons, Page, Menzies and Fadden governments. Hughes is the longest-serving parliamentarian in Australian history. He transferred to Bradfield after it was carved out of North Sydney's northern portion in 1949, and died as that seat's member in 1952. Other notable members include Mack, Hockey, and Dugald Thomson, a minister in the Reid Government.
Boundaries[]
Located along Sydney's Lower North Shore, the division is named after the suburb of North Sydney. It also includes the suburbs of Artarmon, Cammeray, Castlecrag, Crows Nest, Greenwich, Henley, Hunters Hill, Huntleys Cove, Huntleys Point, Kirribilli, Lane Cove, Lane Cove North, Lane Cove West, Lavender Bay, Linley Point, Longueville, McMahons Point, Middle Cove, Milsons Point, Naremburn, North Willoughby, Northbridge, Northwood, Riverview, St Leonards, Waverton, Willoughby, Willoughby East, Wollstonecraft, and Woolwich; as well as parts of Chatswood, Chatswood West, Cremorne, Gladesville, Gore Hill, and Neutral Bay.
Members[]
Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dugald Thomson (1849–1922) |
Free Trade | 29 March 1901 – 1906 |
Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Warringah. Served as minister under Reid. Retired | ||
Anti-Socialist | 1906 – 26 May 1909 | ||||
Commonwealth Liberal | 26 May 1909 – 19 February 1910 | ||||
George Edwards (1855–1911) |
Commonwealth Liberal | 13 April 1910 – 4 February 1911 |
Previously held the Division of South Sydney. Died in office | ||
(Sir) Granville Ryrie (1865–1937) |
Commonwealth Liberal | 11 March 1911 – 17 February 1917 |
Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Queanbeyan. Transferred to the Division of Warringah | ||
Nationalist | 17 February 1917 – 16 December 1922 | ||||
Billy Hughes (1862–1952) |
Nationalist | 16 December 1922 – September 1929 |
Previously held the Division of Bendigo. Served as Prime Minister from 1915 to 1923. Served as minister under Lyons, Page, Menzies and Fadden. Served as leader of the United Australia Party from 1941 to 1943. Transferred to the Division of Bradfield | ||
Independent Nationalist | September 1929 – 2 December 1929 | ||||
Australian | 2 December 1929 – 7 May 1931 | ||||
United Australia | 7 May 1931 – 14 April 1944 | ||||
Independent | 14 April 1944 – 13 September 1945 | ||||
Liberal | 13 September 1945 – 10 December 1949 | ||||
William Jack (1890–1982) |
Liberal | 10 December 1949 – 31 October 1966 |
Retired | ||
Bill Graham (1919–1995) |
Liberal | 26 November 1966 – 19 September 1980 |
Previously held the Division of St George. Retired | ||
John Spender (1935–) |
Liberal | 18 October 1980 – 24 March 1990 |
Lost seat | ||
Ted Mack (1933–2018) |
Independent | 24 March 1990 – 29 January 1996 |
Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of North Shore. Retired | ||
Joe Hockey (1965–) |
Liberal | 2 March 1996 – 23 October 2015 |
Served as minister under Howard and Abbott. Resigned in order to retire from politics | ||
Trent Zimmerman (1968–) |
Liberal | 5 December 2015 – present |
Incumbent. First openly LGBTI member of the House of Representatives |
Election results[]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Trent Zimmerman | 50,319 | 51.96 | +0.47 | |
Labor | Brett Stone | 24,289 | 25.08 | +8.28 | |
Greens | Daniel Keogh | 13,193 | 13.62 | +0.60 | |
Independent | Arthur Chesterfield-Evans | 4,295 | 4.44 | +4.44 | |
Sustainable Australia | Greg Graham | 1,831 | 1.89 | +1.89 | |
Christian Democrats | David Vernon | 1,660 | 1.71 | −0.34 | |
United Australia | Peter Vagg | 1,249 | 1.29 | +1.29 | |
Total formal votes | 96,836 | 95.96 | +0.72 | ||
Informal votes | 4,077 | 4.04 | −0.72 | ||
Turnout | 100,913 | 92.40 | +1.69 | ||
Two-party-preferred result | |||||
Liberal | Trent Zimmerman | 57,398 | 59.27 | −4.34 | |
Labor | Brett Stone | 39,438 | 40.73 | +4.34 | |
Liberal hold | Swing | −4.34 |
References[]
- ^ a b c 2015 North Sydney by-election: Antony Green ABC
- ^ Independents' 'father' says trio will choose ALP: ABC AM 6 September 2010
- ^ Osborne, Paul (26 October 2015). "Zimmerman wins North Sydney preselection". Yahoo 7 News. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
- ^ a b Gartrell, Adam (5 December 2015). "Liberal Trent Zimmerman wins North Sydney byelection despite swing". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
- ^ "A Comment on the Size of the Port Adelaide Swing, Antony Green". Blogs.abc.net.au. 13 February 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ^ An Example of Non-Monotonicity and Opportunites [sic] for Tactical Voting at an Australian Election: Antony Green ABC 4 May 2011
- ^ When an election’s not a battle but a limp formality: Daily Telegraph 26 November 2015
- ^ North Sydney, NSW, Tally Room 2019, Australian Electoral Commission.
External links[]
- Electoral divisions of Australia
- Constituencies established in 1901
- 1901 establishments in Australia