Division of Cunningham

This article is about the Australian federal electorate. For the former Queensland state electorate, see Electoral district of Cunningham.

Cunningham Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Cunningham (green) in New South Wales
Created:	1949
MP:	Sharon Bird
Party:	Labor
Namesake:	Allan Cunningham
Area:	721 km² (278 sq mi)
Demographic:	Provincial

The Division of Cunningham is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Allan Cunningham, a 19th century explorer of New South Wales and Queensland. It is located on the coast of New South Wales between southern Sydney and Wollongong, and takes in parts of the city of Wollongong, including Corrimal, Figtree and Unanderra. It also includes several suburbs on the southern outskirts of Sydney, such as Heathcote and Bundeena. It has always been won by the Australian Labor Party, except at the 2002 by-election when it was lost to the Australian Greens, the first time that the Greens had held a seat in the House of Representatives. Labor recovered the seat at the October 2004 election. Its most prominent members have been Rex Connor, a senior minister in the Whitlam government, and Stephen Martin, who was Speaker 1993–96. The main products and means of livelihood in the area are tourism, tertiary education, steel production, coal mining, brick manufacturing, textiles and dairy farming.

Although the region is primarily rural, the vast majority of the population is located in the northern outskirts of Wollongong and along the eastern seaboard.

Geography

The Division covers areas east of the a ridge in the Great Dividing Range and is bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Royal National Park and to the south by the Wollongong suburbs of Figtree, Cordeaux Heights and Coniston.

Members

Member		Party	Years
	Billy Davies	Labor	1949–1956
	Victor Kearney	Labor	1956–1963
	Rex Connor	Labor	1963–1977
	Stewart West	Labor	1977–1993
	Stephen Martin	Labor	1993–2002
	Michael Organ	Greens	2002–2004
	Sharon Bird	Labor	2004–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Cunningham

Australian federal election, 2010: Cunningham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Sharon Bird	43,769	49.17	-3.20
	Liberal	Philip Clifford	29,241	32.85	+4.94
	Greens	George Takacs	13,461	15.12	+0.90
	Socialist Alliance	Jess Moore	1,303	1.46	+0.68
	Non-Custodial Parents	John Flanagan	1,240	1.39	+0.85
Total formal votes			89,014	94.32	-1.77
Informal votes			5,359	5.68	+1.77
Turnout			94,373	93.72	-2.41
Two-candidate preferred result
	Labor	Sharon Bird	56,234	63.17	-3.70
	Liberal	Philip Clifford	32,780	36.83	+3.70
	Labor hold		Swing	-3.70

References

• Division of Cunningham - Australian Electoral Commission
• Wilson, Peter (2002). The Australian Political Almanack.