Electoral district of Rockingham

Rockingham
Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Rockingham; Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
	Location of Rockingham (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
State	Western Australia
Dates current	1974–present
MP	Mark McGowan
Party	Labor
Namesake	Rockingham
Electors	29,259 (2021)
Area	49 km2 (18.9 sq mi)
Demographic	South Metropolitan

Rockingham is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Western Australia.

The district is located in the outer south-western suburbs of Perth.

Rockingham has been held at all times by the Labor Party.

Geography[]

The electorate is a compact, urban district centred on the coastal community of Rockingham, a satellite suburb to the south-west of Perth. The district also takes in the neighbouring suburbs of Peron, Shoalwater, Safety Bay, as well as parts of Cooloongup, East Rockingham and Waikiki. The district also includes Garden Island.

The seat was created in 1974 at the height of the Charles Court government's popularity, and was initially a marginal Labor seat. However, a redistribution ahead of the 1980 election made it much friendlier to Labor, and since then it has been one of Labor's safest seats. Since 1980, Labor's hold on the seat has only been seriously threatened twice, in 1989 and 1993.

Members for Rockingham[]

Rockingham has had only two members. The first, Mike Barnett, served as Speaker of the Legislative Assembly for most of the Burke and Dowding governments. He retired in 1996 and handed the seat to Mark McGowan, a minister in the Gallop and Carpenter governments, and later a prominent member of the opposition to the Barnett government.

McGowan was elected leader of WA Labor, and hence Leader of the Opposition, in 2012. As a measure of Labor's strength in the seat, McGowan picked up a modest swing in his favour in 2013 even as Labor was heavily defeated statewide.

Four years later, McGowan led Labor to the largest majority government in the state's history. Along the way, his own margin in Rockingham swelled from an already comfortably safe 13.2 percent to 23.4 percent. In 2021, he led Labor to the most comprehensive election victory at any level in Australia since Federation, with 53 out of 59 seats. His own margin in Rockingham ballooned to 37.7 percent, the safest seat in the state.

Member		Party	Term
	Mike Barnett	Labor	1974–1996
	Mark McGowan	Labor	1996–present

Election results[]

2021 Western Australian state election: Rockingham^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Mark McGowan	19,661	82.8	+21.3
	Liberal	Michael McClure	2,322	9.8	−7.9
	Greens	Breanna Morgan	753	3.2	−4.0
	One Nation	Geoff George	489	2.1	−6.6
	No Mandatory Vaccination	Tom Hawkins	383	1.6	+1.6
	Liberal Democrats	William Lofts	151	0.6	+0.6
Total formal votes			23,759	96.7	+1.1
Informal votes			801	3.3	−1.1
Turnout			24,560	83.9	−1.2
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Mark McGowan	20,836	87.7	+14.2
	Liberal	Michael McClure	2,916	12.3	−14.2
	Labor hold		Swing	+14.2

References[]

^ 2021 State General Election – Rockingham District Results, WAEC

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[1] 2021 State General Election – Rockingham District Results, WAEC

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