Division of Durack
| Durack Australian House of Representatives Division | |
|---|---|
 Division of Durack in Western Australia, as of the 2016 federal election. | |
| Created | 2008 |
| MP | Melissa Price |
| Party | Liberal |
| Namesake | Durack family of Western Australia |
| Electors | 97,347 (2016) |
| Area | 1,629,858 km2 (629,291.7 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Rural |
The Division of Durack is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia. The Division is named after the pioneering Durack family, upon whom Dame Mary Durack based her popular historical novels. Created to replace parts of the divisions of Kalgoorlie (which has been abolished) and O'Connor, it elected its first member at the 2010 election.[1] Sitting Kalgoorlie MP Barry Haase of the Liberal Party contested and won the seat.[2] Haase announced he would not recontest Durack at the next election on 15 June 2013.[3] The seat was won at the 2013 election by Liberal candidate Melissa Price.
Geography
Durack includes the northern parts of Western Australia, including the northern and central parts of the Wheatbelt, the Mid West, Gascoyne, Pilbara and the Kimberley regions. Populated areas include the city of Geraldton, Broome, Carnarvon, Derby, Dongara, Kalbarri, Karratha, Kununurra, Meekatharra, Merredin, Moora, Mukinbudin, Newman, Port Hedland and Tom Price.
At 1,629,858 km² (64 per cent of the landmass of Western Australia), Durack is the largest electorate in Australia by land area, the largest constituency in the world that practices compulsory voting, and the second largest single-member electorate in the world after Nunavut in Canada.[4] Although physically similar in size to Mexico, the electorate has only 300 settlements.[5]
Members
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barry Haase | Liberal | 2010–2013 | |
| Melissa Price | Liberal | 2013–present | |
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Melissa Price | 32,011 | 41.74 | +3.59 | |
| Labor | Carol Martin | 19,860 | 25.90 | +5.87 | |
| National | Lisa Cole | 12,257 | 15.98 | −7.42 | |
| Greens | Ian James | 7,710 | 10.05 | +3.10 | |
| Rise Up Australia | Mitchell Sambell | 2,885 | 3.76 | +2.69 | |
| Christians | Grahame Gould | 1,966 | 2.56 | +1.25 | |
| Total formal votes | 76,689 | 96.09 | +2.49 | ||
| Informal votes | 3,122 | 3.91 | −2.49 | ||
| Turnout | 79,811 | 81.99 | −6.93 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Liberal | Melissa Price | 46,823 | 61.06 | −3.98 | |
| Labor | Carol Martin | 29,866 | 38.94 | +3.98 | |
| Liberal hold | Swing | −3.98 | |||
References
- ^ Final Federal Electoral Boundaries for Western Australia
- ^ http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/07/27/2637319.htm
- ^ It's game on in Australia's biggest federal electorate
- ^ Durack: the electorate bigger than many countries still finds it hard to get noticed, The Guardian, 14 May 2016
- ^ Taylor, Rob (26 June 2016). "In Australia, This Political Race Covers a Lot of Ground". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- ^ Durack, WA, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission.