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
Area:	8,328 km² (3,215 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 Federal election. It was named after Angus McMillan, one of the first Europeans to explore the Gippsland region. The Division is currently a marginal Liberal seat. The Division has changed hands five times in the last seven Federal elections. The change at the Australian federal election, 2004 was attributed to the redistribution of 29 January 2003, which removed the traditionally Labor-voting cities of Traralgon and Morwell from the Division. Russell Broadbent held the seat again in the Australian federal election, 2007, 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.

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, 2010: McMillan
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Russell Broadbent	41,870	49.28	-0.65
	Labor	Christine Maxfield	30,212	35.56	-2.58
	Greens	Malcolm McKelvie	8,258	9.72	+3.72
	Family First	Linden Stokes	2,776	3.27	+0.33
	Independent	Leigh Gatt	1,844	2.17	+2.17
Total formal votes			84,960	96.03	-0.54
Informal votes			3,511	3.97	+0.54
Turnout			88,471	94.80	-1.08
Two-candidate preferred result
	Liberal	Russell Broadbent	46,229	54.41	-0.38
	Labor	Christine Maxfield	38,731	45.59	+0.38
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.38

Notes

1. ^ "Three times lucky for seasoned campaigner". The Age. 11 October 2004. http://theage.com.au/articles/2004/10/10/1097406425412.html. 

References

• Division of McMillan, Australian Electoral Commission