Division of Bass
Bass Australian House of Representatives Division | |
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![]() Division of Bass in Tasmania, as of the 2019 federal election. | |
Created | 1903 |
MP | Bridget Archer |
Party | Liberal |
Namesake | George Bass |
Electors | 76,532 (2019) |
Area | 7,975ee km2 (Formatting error: invalid input when rounding sq mi) |
Demographic | Provincial |
The Division of Bass is an Australian electoral division in Tasmania.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/George_Bass_engraving.png/100px-George_Bass_engraving.png)
The division was one of the five established when the former Division of Tasmania was redistributed on 2 October 1903 and is named for the explorer George Bass. It has always been based on the city of Launceston and surrounding rural areas, and its boundaries have changed very little in the century since its creation. For most of its history it has been a marginal seat, changing hands between the Australian Labor Party and the conservative parties—since 1949 the Liberal Party. Its most notable member has been Lance Barnard, who was Deputy Prime Minister in the Whitlam Government. His resignation in 1975 was followed by Labor's heavy defeat in the Bass by-election, which is seen as the beginning of the end of the Whitlam government.
The Liberals won the seat at the 2019 election.
Bass has had the most different members of any federal electorate at seventeen.