Division of Wentworth

Wentworth Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wentworth (green) in New South Wales
Created	1901
MP	Malcolm Turnbull
Party	Liberal
Namesake	William Wentworth
Electors	109,262 (2013)[1]
Area	30 km^2 (11.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wentworth is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. It was proclaimed in 1900 and was one of the original 75 federation divisions contested at the first federal election. The division is named after William Charles Wentworth (1790–1872), an Australian explorer and statesman. In 1813 he accompanied Blaxland and Lawson on their crossing of the Blue Mountains.

Wentworth is the smallest geographical electoral division in the Parliament with an area of just 30 square kilometres (12 sq mi), covering Woolloomooloo along the southern shore of Sydney Harbour to Watsons Bay and down the coast to Clovelly. The western boundary runs along Oxford Street, Flinders Street and South Dowling Street, then eastward along Alison Road to Randwick Racecourse and Clovelly Beach. It includes the suburbs of Bellevue Hill, Bondi, Bondi Beach, Bondi Junction, Bronte, Centennial Park, Darlinghurst, Darling Point, Dover Heights, Double Bay, East Sydney, Edgecliff, Elizabeth Bay, Kings Cross, North Bondi, Paddington, Point Piper, Potts Point, Queens Park, Rose Bay, Rushcutters Bay, Vaucluse, Waverley and Woollahra, and parts of Randwick and Surry Hills.

Considered a safe seat for the Liberal Party of Australia, Wentworth is one of only two original federation divisions in New South Wales, along with the Division of North Sydney, which has never been held by the Australian Labor Party, though Labor candidate Jessie Street came within 1.6 percent of winning Wentworth at the 1943 election landslide. According to the census, the seat covers some of the wealthiest suburbs in Australia and has the highest proportion of high income families of all seats in Australia, with the Division of North Sydney coming second.^[2][3]

The current member since the 2004 election is Liberal Malcolm Turnbull who has served as Prime Minister of Australia since September 2015. Both Turnbull and a previous member John Hewson had been Opposition Leaders. In fact both became Opposition Leaders in their respective second terms as members for Wentworth.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Sir William McMillan	Free Trade	1901–1903
	Willie Kelly	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1903–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1919
	Walter Marks	Nationalist	1919–1929
		Independent	1929–1930
		Australian	1930–1931
		United Australia	1931
	Sir Eric Harrison	United Australia	1931–1944
		Liberal	1944–1956
	Les Bury	Liberal	1956–1974
	Bob Ellicott	Liberal	1974–1981
	Peter Coleman	Liberal	1981–1987
	John Hewson	Liberal	1987–1995
	Andrew Thomson	Liberal	1995–2001
	Peter King	Liberal	2001–2004
		Independent	2004
	Malcolm Turnbull	Liberal	2004–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2013: Wentworth[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Malcolm Turnbull	58,306	63.32	+3.75
	Labor	Di Smith	17,840	19.37	−1.70
	Greens	Matthew Robertson	13,455	14.61	−2.83
	Independent	Pat Sheil	1,054	1.14	+0.55
	Palmer United	Marsha Foxman	998	1.08	+1.08
	Christian Democrats	Beresford Thomas	431	0.47	+0.47
Total formal votes			92,084	94.30	−1.20
Informal votes			5,564	5.70	+1.20
Turnout			97,648	89.30	−0.17
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Malcolm Turnbull	62,359	67.72	+2.86
	Labor	Di Smith	29,725	32.28	−2.86
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.86

References

1. "NSW Division - Wentworth, NSW". Virtual Tally Room, Election 2013. Australian Electoral Commission. 9 October 2013. Retrieved 6 November 2013.
2. Wentworth profile, 2013 election: Antony Green ABC
3. 2015 North Sydney by-election: Antony Green ABC

External links

• Division of Wentworth – Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 33°52′59″S 151°15′11″E / 33.883°S 151.253°E