Division of Hunter

This article is about the federal electoral division. For the New South Wales electoral district, see Electoral district of Upper Hunter.

Hunter Australian House of Representatives Division
300px The location of the Division of Hunter, highlighted in red, in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1901
MP	Joel Fitzgibbon
Party	Labor
Namesake	John Hunter
Electors	97,292 (2013)
Area	20,111 km2 (7,764.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Hunter is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The Division was named after Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales.

The division is located in northern rural New South Wales, and encompasses much of the Hunter Region, including the towns of Singleton, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Cessnock and Denman. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first federal election.

The Member for the Division of Hunter, since the 1996 federal election, is Joel Fitzgibbon, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

2015 abolition

In 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the federation seat of Hunter. Electors in the north of Hunter will join New England. The roughly 40 percent remainder will become part of Paterson, where the Liberal margin is set to be notionally reduced from 9.8 percent to just 0.5 percent as a result. Since the Commission's guidelines require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible, the commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales loses a seat while Western Australia gets an extra seat.

The final plan, however, saw Charlton abolished, with Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory.

History

The seat has been in Labor hands since 1910, and for most of that time has been reasonably safe for that party. The Hunter Region has been one of the few country areas where Labor has consistently done well. Among its notable members have been Prime Minister Edmund Barton, former Labor Leaders Matthew Charlton and Dr H. V. Evatt, and Joel Fitzgibbon, who was a minister in the first and second Rudd governments. The seat became somewhat marginal in 1984 when much of its territory was shifted to the newly created Charlton, but since 1990 Labor has never tallied less than 53 percent of the two-party vote.

The seat has been held by two father-son combinations. Rowley James held the seat from 1928 to 1958 before giving it up for Evatt, who was in danger of losing his Sydney-area seat of Barton and wanted a friendlier seat in which to run. Evatt was succeeded after one term by Rowley James' son, Bert, who held it until 1980. Eric Fitzgibbon won the seat in 1984, handing it to his son and current member, Joel, in 1996.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	(Sir) Edmund Barton	Protectionist	1901–1903
	Frank Liddell	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1903–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
	Matthew Charlton	Labor	1910–1928
	Rowley James	Labor	1928–1931
		Lang Labor	1931–1936
		Labor	1936–1958
	H. V. Evatt	Labor	1958–1960
	Bert James	Labor	1960–1980
	Bob Brown	Labor	1980–1984
	Eric Fitzgibbon	Labor	1984–1996
	Joel Fitzgibbon	Labor	1996–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Hunter

Australian federal election, 2013: Hunter

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Joel Fitzgibbon	38,241	44.50	−9.81
	National	Michael Johnsen	30,170	35.11	+4.06
	Palmer United	Jennifer Stefanac	6,552	7.62	+7.62
	Greens	David Atwell	5,066	5.89	−3.03
	One Nation	Bill Fox	3,245	3.78	+0.43
	Christian Democrats	Richard Stretton	1,834	2.13	−0.25
	CEC	Ann Lawler	833	0.97	+0.97
Total formal votes			85,941	93.46	−0.33
Informal votes			6,014	6.54	+0.33
Turnout			91,955	94.51	−0.22
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Joel Fitzgibbon	46,125	53.67	−8.81
	National	Michael Johnsen	39,816	46.33	+8.81
	Labor hold		Swing	−8.81

External links

• Division of Hunter - Australian Electoral Commission