Electoral district of South-West Coast

South-West Coast Victoria—Legislative Assembly
State or territory:	Victoria
Created:	2002
MP:	Denis Napthine
Party:	Liberal Party of Australia
Electors:	43,344 (2010)
Area:	5,834 km² (2,253 sq mi)
Demographic:	Rural

The Electoral district of South-West Coast is an electorate of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It was created prior to the 2002 election in order to replace the abolished seats of Portland and Warrnambool.

The seat covers much of Victoria's western district, including the towns of Warrnambool, Portland, Port Fairy, and Macarthur.

South-West Coast is based around nominally safe Liberal territory, and was thus a natural choice for former Opposition Leader Denis Napthine to contest at the 2002 state election. However, due to a landslide statewide swing to the Labor Party, the seat was very nearly lost to the Labor Party, and was only retained by a margin of 0.7%.

Members for South-West Coast

	Member	Party	Term
	Denis Napthine	Liberal	2002–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of South-West Coast

Victorian state election, 2010: South-West Coast
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Denis Napthine	19,316	49.28	+3.98
	Labor	John Herbertson	9,658	24.64	-13.68
	Independent	James Purcell	4,519	11.53	+11.53
	Greens	Jack Howard	3,228	8.24	+2.86
	Country Alliance	Tony Arscott	1,394	3.56	+3.56
	Family First	Craig Haberfield	1,081	2.76	-0.64
Total formal votes			39,196	95.97	+0.16
Informal votes			1,644	4.04	-0.16
Turnout			40,840	94.22	+0.85
Two-candidate preferred result
	Liberal	Denis Napthine	24,252	61.90	+7.89
	Labor	John Herbertson	14,926	38.10	-7.89
	Liberal hold		Swing	+7.89

See also

• Parliaments of the Australian states and territories
• List of members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly

External links

• Electorate profile: South-West Coast, Victorian Electoral Commission