Division of McMillan

McMillan Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of McMillan (green) in Victoria
Created	1949
MP	Russell Broadbent
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Angus McMillan
Electors	93,285 (2010)
Area	8,328 km2 (3,215.5 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of McMillan is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. It is located in the western part of the Gippsland region, which extends for the length of Victoria's eastern Bass Strait coastline. It includes the outer south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Pakenham, and also includes the towns of Warragul, Moe, Wonthaggi, Leongatha and Foster. It stretches from Mount Baw Baw and the Baw Baw National Park in the north to Wilsons Promontory, and the Wilsons Promontory National Park in the south. It is the southernmost Electoral Division in continental Australia.

The Division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 11 May 1949, and was first contested at the 1949 election. It was named after Angus McMillan, one of the first Europeans to explore the Gippsland region. The seat traded hands between the conservative parties from its creation until Labor finally won it in 1980. The Division has changed hands five times in the last seven Federal elections. The change at the 2004 election was attributed to the redistribution of 29 January 2003, which removed the traditionally Labor-voting cities of Traralgon and Morwell from the Division. This allowed Liberal Russell Broadbent to win the seat once again; he'd previously held it from 1996 to 1998. Broadbent was reelected in the 2007 election, making it the first time he has been re-elected.

The 1972 federal election saw Country Party candidate Arthur Hewson win the seat from third place and a primary vote of 16.6%. This is the lowest primary vote for a winning candidate in any federal election; Hewson overtook the Liberal candidate on preferences from the Democratic Labor Party and disendorsed sitting Liberal MP Alexander Buchanan, and then defeated the Labor candidate on Liberal preferences.

Name change proposal

In March 2016 the Member for McMillan, Russell Broadbent, announced he had written to the Australian Electoral Commission with the suggestion his electorate be renamed. He said Angus McMillan's name has been connected with the mass murder of Gippsland's indigenous people. The Labor candidate for McMillan, Chris Buckingham, supported the change. The proposal will be considered by the AEC during its scheduled 2017 review of Victorian federal electorate boundaries.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Geoffrey Brown	Liberal	1949–1955
	Alexander Buchanan	Liberal	1955–1972
		Independent	1972–1972
	Arthur Hewson	Country	1972–1975
	Barry Simon	Liberal	1975–1980
	Barry Cunningham	Labor	1980–1990
	John Riggall	Liberal	1990–1993
	Barry Cunningham	Labor	1993–1996
	Russell Broadbent	Liberal	1996–1998
	Christian Zahra	Labor	1998–2004
	Russell Broadbent	Liberal	2004–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of McMillan

Australian federal election, 2013: McMillan

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Russell Broadbent	47,316	50.36	+1.31
	Labor	Anthony Naus	23,537	25.05	−10.71
	Greens	Malcolm McKelvie	7,157	7.62	−2.09
	Palmer United	Matthew Sherry	4,380	4.66	+4.66
	Katter's Australian	David Amor	2,262	2.41	+2.41
	Sex Party	Ben Staggard	2,168	2.31	+2.20
	Family First	Luke Conlon	1,893	2.01	−1.24
	Democratic Labour	Andrew Kis-Rigo	1,641	1.75	+1.75
	Independent	John Parker	1,245	1.33	+1.33
	Country Alliance	Ross Fisher	822	0.87	+0.87
	Independent	Leigh Gatt	695	0.74	−1.35
	Rise Up Australia	Norman Baker	627	0.67	+0.67
	Senator Online	Gary Patton	209	0.22	+0.22
Total formal votes			93,952	93.89	−2.15
Informal votes			6,118	6.11	+2.15
Turnout			100,070	94.64	+0.34
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Russell Broadbent	58,095	61.83	+7.62
	Labor	Anthony Naus	35,857	38.17	−7.62
	Liberal hold		Swing	+7.62

External links

• Division of McMillan - Australian Electoral Commission