Division of Wills

Wills Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wills in Victoria, as of the 2019 federal election.
Created	1949
MP	Peter Khalil
Party	Labor
Namesake	William Wills
Electors	110,682 (2019)
Area	46 km2 (17.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division of Victoria. It is currently represented by Peter Khalil of the Australian Labor Party.

The electorate encompasses many of the suburbs in the City of Moreland in Melbourne's north, including Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Fawkner, Glenroy and Essendon Airport.

History

William Wills, the division's namesake

The division was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame. It was created in the 1949 redistribution.

Wills has been in Labor hands for its entire existence except between the 1992 by-election and 1996, when it was held by independent Phil Cleary. Its highest-profile member was Bob Hawke, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 until 1991. The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the Crown from standing for election). No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.

Despite the history of Wills as a traditional Labor stronghold, demographic changes and the rise of The Greens have seen Wills, along with the neighbouring seat of Batman, become Labor-Green marginal seats in recent years. In 2016, Labor's margin versus Greens candidate and City of Moreland Mayor Samantha Ratnam dropped below 5 percent after a swing of more than 10 percent to Ratnam, despite the traditional 2PP margin (versus The Liberals) of over 20 percent making it one of the safest Labor seats in the country when considered against the Coalition.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Bill Bryson (1898–1973)	Labor	10 December 1949 – April 1955	Previously held the Division of Bourke. Lost seat
			Labor (Anti-Communist)	April 1955 – 10 December 1955
		Gordon Bryant (1914–1991)	Labor	10 December 1955 – 19 September 1980	Served as minister under Whitlam. Retired
		Bob Hawke (1929–2019)	Labor	18 October 1980 – 20 February 1992	Served as Opposition Leader in 1983. Served as Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991. Resigned in order to retire from politics
		Phil Cleary (1952–)	Independent	11 April 1992 – 2 March 1996	Lost seat
		Kelvin Thomson (1955–)	Labor	2 March 1996 – 9 May 2016	Retired
		Peter Khalil (1973–)	Labor	2 July 2016 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Wills

External links

• Division of Wills - Australian Electoral Commission