Division of Franklin

This article is about the federal electorate. For the state electorate, see Division of Franklin (state).

Franklin Australian House of Representatives Division
300px Division of Franklin (green) in Tasmania
Created	1903
MP	Julie Collins
Party	Labor
Namesake	John Franklin
Electors	73,594 (2013)
Area	6,514 km2 (2,515.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Franklin is an Australian electoral division in Tasmania. The division was one of the five established when the former Division of Tasmania was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for Sir John Franklin, the polar explorer who was Lt Governor of Van Diemen's Land 1843-46. It is located in southern Tasmania, including the Hobart suburbs of Bridgewater, Cygnet, Kingston and Lauderdale. It has always been a reasonably marginal seat, changing hands between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party and its predecessors.

Although after 14 years of representation by former Labor and independent member Harry Quick, the seat of Franklin was considered safe Labor with Franklin one of very few electorates to record a swing to Labor at the 2010 election. Franklin also has a strong history of voting for strong candidates rather than for a particular party.

In 2005, sitting Labor member Harry Quick announced that he would retire at the 2007 election. When Labor preselected union official Kevin Harkins as a replacement, Quick, seeing him as unsuitable, appeared to endorse the Liberal candidate, Vanessa Goodwin, which was partly responsible for his expulsion from the Labor party. Harkins was eventually dropped as a candidate, and the Labor Party state secretary Julie Collins was installed as the ALP candidate.

Collins won the seat of Franklin at the 2007 election despite the Labor suffering a 3.11% swing against on two party preferred results and 5.03% swing against in general results. Liberal Party candidate Vanessa Goodwin recorded a swing towards the party while the Australian Greens a swing towards the party similar to that of the Liberals.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	William McWilliams	Revenue Tariff	1903–1906
		Anti-Socialist	1906–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1920
		Country	1920–1922
	Alfred Seabrook	Nationalist	1922–1928
	William McWilliams	Independent	1928–1929
	Charles Frost	Labor	1929–1931
	Archibald Blacklow	United Australia	1931–1934
	Charles Frost	Labor	1934–1946
	Bill Falkinder	Liberal	1946–1966
	Thomas Pearsall	Liberal	1966–1969
	Ray Sherry	Labor	1969–1975
	Bruce Goodluck	Liberal	1975–1993
	Harry Quick	Labor	1993–2007
		Independent	2007–2007
	Julie Collins	Labor	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Franklin

Australian federal election, 2013: Franklin

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Julie Collins	26,893	39.93	−2.92
	Liberal	Bernadette Black	26,070	38.71	+5.23
	Greens	Rosalie Woodruff	8,201	12.18	−8.69
	Palmer United	Marti Zucco	4,108	6.10	+6.10
	Family First	Josh Downes	1,264	1.88	+1.88
	Katter's Australian	Sarah Ugalde	478	0.71	+0.71
	Rise Up Australia	Olwyn Bowden	330	0.49	+0.49
Total formal votes			67,344	96.23	−0.29
Informal votes			2,639	3.77	+0.29
Turnout			69,983	95.09	−0.37
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Julie Collins	37,103	55.09	−5.73
	Liberal	Bernadette Black	30,241	44.91	+5.73
	Labor hold		Swing	−5.73

External links

• Division of Franklin - Australian Electoral Commission