Division of Gellibrand

Gellibrand Australian House of Representatives Division
300px Division of Gellibrand (green) in Victoria
Created	1949
MP	Tim Watts
Party	Labor
Namesake	Joseph Gellibrand
Electors	102,141 (2013)
Area	102 km2 (39.4 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Gellibrand is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1949 and is named after Joseph Gellibrand, a pioneer settler of the Melbourne area. It is located in the industrial inner western suburbs of Melbourne and includes Altona, Ardeer, Brooklyn, Footscray, Kingsville, Newport, Seddon, Spotswood, Sunshine, Tottenham, Williamstown, Yarraville and parts of Altona Meadows and Maidstone.

The Division has been held by the Australian Labor Party for its entire existence; it is located in Labor's traditional heartland of western Melbourne, and is characterised by a very diverse, multicultural population. Labor has never tallied less than 60 percent of the two-party vote. Its most prominent members have been Ralph Willis, a Cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments, and Nicola Roxon, a Cabinet minister in the Rudd Government and the first and second Gillard Governments. Nicola Roxon was Australia's first female Attorney General in the Gillard Government.

In recent years there has been considerable gentrification in the inner-city suburbs such as Footscray, Williamstown and Yarraville, and a consequent rise in the progressive Greens vote, which rose to 37 percent in Footscray in the 2013 election. In the west, a solid patch of working-class suburbia remain strongly Labor-leaning.

For several years, Gellibrand was Labor's safest seat in the Federal Parliament. It is currently the third-safest, with a 17 percent swing required for the Liberals to win it.

The current member for Gellibrand since the 2013 election is Tim Watts, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Jack Mullens	Labor	1949–1955
		Labor (Anti-Communist)	1955–1955
	Hector McIvor	Labor	1955–1972
	Ralph Willis	Labor	1972–1998
	Nicola Roxon	Labor	1998–2013
	Tim Watts	Labor	2013–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Gellibrand

Australian federal election, 2013: Gellibrand

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Tim Watts	40,236	46.04	−12.90
	Liberal	David McConnell	23,343	26.71	+4.29
	Greens	Rod Swift	14,623	16.73	+1.50
	Palmer United	Dwayne Singleton	3,413	3.91	+3.91
	Sex Party	Allan Cashion	2,540	2.91	+2.91
	Family First	Kerry Arch	2,266	2.59	+0.21
	Christians	Anthony O'Neill	967	1.11	+1.11
Total formal votes			87,388	94.38	−0.29
Informal votes			5,202	5.62	+0.29
Turnout			92,590	90.65	−0.91
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Tim Watts	58,139	66.53	−7.60
	Liberal	David McConnell	29,249	33.47	+7.60
	Labor hold		Swing	−7.60

External links

• Division of Gellibrand - Australian Electoral Commission