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 | 97,379 (2013)[1] |
| Area | 2,768 km2 (1,068.7 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Rural |
The Division of Richmond is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. The division is named after the area in which it is located,[2] namely the Richmond Valley and Richmond River, which was named in honour of Charles, the fifth Duke of Richmond.[3]
The division is located in the far north-east of the state, adjacent to the Coral Sea. It adjoins the Queensland border to the north, and encompasses the towns of Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.
The current Member for Richmond, since the 2004 federal election, is Justine Elliot, a member of the Australian Labor Party.
History
Historically, the division 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 -- Hubert Lawrence Anthony (a minister in the Fadden and Menzies governments), Doug Anthony (leader of the National Party from 1971 to 1984 and Deputy Prime Minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments) and Larry Anthony (a minister in the Howard government) -- the first three-generation dynasty in the Australian House of Representatives.[4] However, strong population growth from the 1980s onward has seen it progressively lose its rural territory and reduced it to a more coastal-based and urbanised division. Accompanying demographic change has made the seat friendlier to Labor in more 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 defeated in the 1990 election when the preferences of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott allowed Labor challenger Neville Newell to claim the seat, despite only winning 27 percent of first preferences. At that time, iIt was only the second time that a major party leader had lost their 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, and the first time a non-Labor government had been in office without Richmond. 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 and the 2013 elections.
Members
Election results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National | Matthew Fraser | 32,066 | 37.60 | +16.39 | |
| Labor | Justine Elliot | 28,575 | 33.51 | −5.68 | |
| Greens | Dawn Walker | 15,083 | 17.69 | +1.54 | |
| Palmer United | Charles Allen | 6,359 | 7.46 | +7.46 | |
| Independent | Kev Skinner | 1,971 | 2.31 | +2.31 | |
| Christian Democrats | John Ordish | 1,224 | 1.44 | +1.44 | |
| Total formal votes | 85,278 | 95.09 | +0.64 | ||
| Informal votes | 4,403 | 4.91 | −0.64 | ||
| Turnout | 89,681 | 92.09 | −0.55 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Justine Elliot | 45,179 | 52.98 | −4.01 | |
| National | Matthew Fraser | 40,099 | 47.02 | +4.01 | |
| Labor hold | Swing | −4.01 | |||
References
- ^ a b "NSW Division - Richmond, NSW". Virtual Tally Room, Election 2013. Australian Electoral Commission. 26 September 2013 01:37:14 PM. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Profile of the electoral division of Richmond (NSW)". Current federal electoral divisions. Australian Electoral Commission. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
- ^ "Richmond River". Geographical Names Register (GNR) of NSW. Geographical Names Board of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 February 2013.
- ^ Hogan, Allan (2011). "Dynasties: Anthony". ABC TV. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
