Division of Richmond

Richmond Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Richmond (green) within New South Wales
Created:	1901
MP:	Justine Elliot
Party:	Labor
Namesake:	Richmond River
Electors:	92,391 (2010)
Area:	2,768 km² (1,069 sq mi)
Demographic:	Rural

The Division of Richmond is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the far north-east of the state, along the Pacific coast. It adjoins the Queensland border to the north, and encompasses the towns of Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.

The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. Historically, it has been a rural seat and fairly safe for the National Party (formerly called the Country Party), which held it for all but six years from 1922 to 2004. For 55 of those years, it was held by three generations of the Anthony family--Larry Anthony (senior) (a minister in the Fadden and Menzies governments), Doug Anthony (Deputy Prime Minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments) and Larry Anthony (junior) (a minister in the Howard government)--the first three-generation dynasty in the Australian House of Representatives. However, strong population growth has seen it progressively lose its rural territory to become a more coastal-based and urbanised division, and demographic change has made the seat friendlier to Labor in recent years.

Besides the Anthony family, the division was also held by former Nationals leader Charles Blunt. His tenure was short-lived, however. Just months after becoming leader of the Nationals, he was thrown from office in the 1990 election when the preferences of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott allowed Labor challenger Neville Newell to defeat him despite only winning 27 percent of first preferences. It was only the second time a major party leader had lost his own seat in an election. Larry Anthony (junior) regained the seat for the Nationals in 1996, only to be defeated by Labor's Justine Elliot in 2004 – the first time a member of the Anthony family had been unseated in an election. In 2007, Elliot technically made Richmond a safe Labor seat by gaining a large swing as Labor won government. She retained the seat at the 2010 election with only a small swing against her.

The seat will be contested at the 2013 election by the sitting member Justine Elliot for the Australian Labor Party and Matthew Fraser for the National Party of Australia.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	(Sir) Thomas Ewing	Protectionist	1901–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
	Walter Massy-Greene	Commonwealth Liberal	1910–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1922
	Roland Green	Country	1922–1937
	Larry Anthony (senior)	Country	1937–1957
	Doug Anthony	Country	1957–1975
		National Country	1975–1982
		National	1982–1984
	Charles Blunt	National	1984–1990
	Neville Newell	Labor	1990–1996
	Larry Anthony	National	1996–2004
	Justine Elliot	Labor	2004–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Richmond

Australian federal election, 2010: Richmond
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Justine Elliot	31,679	39.19	-4.62
	National	Alan Hunter	17,146	21.21	-15.77
	Liberal	Joan van Lieshout	15,424	19.08	+19.08
	Greens	Joe Ebono	13,056	16.15	+1.22
	Independent	Julie Boyd	940	1.16	+1.16
	Independent	Matthew Hartley	805	1.00	+1.00
	Independent	Stephen Hegedus	747	0.92	+0.92
	Independent	Nic Faulkner	536	0.66	+0.66
	Democrats	David Robinson	502	0.62	+0.62
Total formal votes			80,835	94.45	-1.27
Informal votes			4,752	5.55	+1.27
Turnout			85,587	92.64	-1.85
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Justine Elliot	46,071	56.99	-1.88
	National	Alan Hunter	34,764	43.01	+1.88
	Labor hold		Swing	-1.88

External links

• Division of Richmond - Australian Electoral Commission