Division of Stirling

Stirling Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Stirling in Western Australia, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1955
MP	Vince Connelly
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Sir James Stirling
Electors	100,781 (2019)
Area	74 km2 (28.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner metropolitan

The Division of Stirling is an Australian electoral division in the inner northern and beachside suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, and includes a large portion of the local government area of the City of Stirling.

The current MP is Vince Connelly of the Liberal Party, who was elected at the 2019 federal election.

History[]

Sir James Stirling, the division's namesake

The electorate was created in the Western Australia redistribution of 10 August 1955, and was named after Sir James Stirling, the 19th-century founding lieutenant governor and governor of Western Australia. Stirling covers a demographically diverse area, including several affluent beachside suburbs, as well as working class further inland. As a result, Stirling has often been a marginal seat, alternating between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia.

Unlike some marginal seats on the east coast, such as Eden-Monaro, Stirling has not often been seen as a barometer for winning government, not because most elections have already been decided by the time WA's first returns come in, but in fact mainly because it has not been a very good barometer for changing governments. For example, longtime Labor member Harry Webb survived the massive Coalition landslide of 1966, only to become one of two Labor MPs from the state to be defeated in 1972 even as Labor ended 23 years of Coalition rule. Probably as a result of coincidence, while it has elected five government MPs, all but three of its members have spent at least one term in opposition.

Besides Webb, who held the seat for all but one term from its creation in 1955 until his defeat in 1972, the seat's most prominent member has been Labor's Ron Edwards, who was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 29 August 1989 to 8 February 1993. It had been expected that if the 1993 election had not been called so soon after Leo McLeay's resignation as Speaker or if Edwards had held his seat in the election upon the re-election of the Keating Government, Edwards would have been elected Speaker.

Opinion polls in the leadup to the 2004 election had suggested a close result in Stirling, leaning towards the possibility of sitting Labor member Jann McFarlane retaining her seat. This had been thought to be more likely after Paul Afkos, the original Liberal candidate, was forced to resign after he was revealed to have borrowed money from a convicted drug dealer. A local businessman, Michael Keenan was brought in as his replacement, and maintained the close difference in polling. However, on election day, the swing to the Liberal Party statewide and nationwide was stronger than expected, and Keenan was ultimately successful in unseating McFarlane. The Stirling Times, a local newspaper, speculated in October 2006 that McFarlane, at that time a Stirling councillor, might contest the seat again in 2007. On 28 November 2006, former SAS officer and outspoken opponent of the Iraq War Peter Tinley accepted an offer from Kim Beazley to run as the ALP candidate in the 2007 election.^[1] Ahead of the 2010 election, Labor preselected Louise Durack, a social worker and executive director of People With Disabilities (WA) and past candidate for the state seat of Ocean Reef, to run for the seat. Keenan was re-elected at the 2010 federal election.

It was confirmed in June 2021 that this division will be abolished at the next federal election, with its area redistributed to the neighbouring divisions of Cowan, Curtin, Moore and Perth.^[2][3]

Geography[]

The division includes the northern majority of the City of Stirling and a small portion of the City of Bayswater. Suburbs include^[4]

Members[]

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Harry Webb (1908–2000)	Labor	10 December 1955 – 22 November 1958	Previously held the Division of Swan. Lost seat
		Doug Cash (1919–2002)	Liberal	22 November 1958 – 9 December 1961	Lost seat. Later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Mirrabooka in 1968
		Harry Webb (1908–2000)	Labor	9 December 1961 – 2 December 1972	Lost seat
		Ian Viner (1933–)	Liberal	2 December 1972 – 5 March 1983	Served as minister under Fraser. Lost seat
		Ron Edwards (1945–)	Labor	5 March 1983 – 13 March 1993	Lost seat
		Eoin Cameron (1951–2016)	Liberal	13 March 1993 – 3 October 1998	Lost seat
		Jann McFarlane (1944–)	Labor	3 October 1998 – 9 October 2004	Lost seat
		Michael Keenan (1972–)	Liberal	9 October 2004 – 11 April 2019	Served as minister under Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. Retired
		Vince Connelly (1978–)	Liberal	18 May 2019 – present	Incumbent

Election results[]

References[]

External links[]

• Division of Stirling - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 31°52′37″S 115°49′05″E / 31.877°S 115.818°E / -31.877; 115.818