Electoral district of Swansea

Swansea is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Hunter Region of the Australian state of New South Wales. It was represented by Milton Orkopoulos of the Australian Labor Party until his arrest in 2006 on allegations of child sex and drugs offences. It is now represented by Garry Edwards of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Swansea is 131 kilometres (81 mi) north of Sydney and has an area of 749 square kilometres (289 sq mi). Swansea contains the southern hemisphere's largest salt water lake, Lake Macquarie, formerly known as Reid's Mistake. The lake was bestowed this title after the namesake of Captain William Reid, who, in 1800, accidentally traveled into the lake thinking it was the Hunter River. Lake Macquarie was given its current name in 1826 after Governor Lachlan Macquarie.

Members for Swansea

Member		Party	Term
	Don Bowman	Labor	1981—1988
	Ivan Welsh	Independent	1988—1991
	Don Bowman	Labor	1991—1995
	Jill Hall	Labor	1995—1998
	Milton Orkopoulos	Labor	1999—2006
		Independent	2006—2006
	Robert Coombs	Labor	2007—2011
	Garry Edwards	Liberal	2011—present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Swansea

New South Wales state election, 2011: Swansea
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Garry Edwards	17,283	37.7	+14.0
	Labor	Robert Coombs	16,133	35.2	-10.7
	Independent	Gillian Sneddon	7,408	16.2	+16.2
	Greens	Phillipa Parsons	3,845	8.4	-0.2
	Christian Democrats	Noreen Tibbey	1,130	2.5	-0.8
Total formal votes			45,799	96.9	-0.2
Informal votes			1,476	3.1	+0.2
Turnout			47,275	94.3
Two-candidate preferred result
	Liberal	Garry Edwards	19,805	51.1	+11.9
	Labor	Robert Coombs	18,928	48.9	-11.9
	Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	+11.9

External links

• "Swansea". New South Wales Electoral Commission. http://www.elections.nsw.gov.au/profiles/district_profiles/swansea. Retrieved 2011-09-30.