Division of Wills

Wills
Australian House of Representatives Division

Division of Wills (green) in Victoria
Created 1949
MP Kelvin Thomson
Party Labor
Namesake William Wills
Electors 105,501 (2013)
Area 57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
Demographic Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division of Victoria. It is currently represented by Kelvin Thomson 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. It was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame.

Wills has historically been one of the safest Labor seats in the country, with Labor usually polling over 65 percent of the two-party preferred vote versus the Liberals. In the 2013 federal election, the Greens overtook the Liberals after preferences. 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 former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

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.

Members

MemberPartyTerm
  Bill Bryson Labor 1949–1955
  Labor (Anti-Communist) 1955–1955
  Gordon Bryant Labor 1955–1980
  Bob Hawke Labor 1980–1992
  Phil Cleary Independent 1992–1996
  Kelvin Thomson Labor 1996–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2013: Wills
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Kelvin Thomson 40,931 45.14 −6.07
Liberal Shilpa Hegde 20,710 22.84 +0.04
Greens Tim Read 20,157 22.23 +0.12
Sex Party Adrian Trajstman 2,363 2.61 +2.51
Palmer United Anne Murray-Dufoulon 2,158 2.38 +2.38
Independent Dean O'Callaghan 2,040 2.25 +2.25
Family First Concetta Giglia 1,285 1.42 −0.15
Socialist Alliance Margarita Windisch 1,024 1.13 +0.30
Total formal votes 90,668 94.47 +0.45
Informal votes 5,304 5.53 −0.45
Turnout 95,972 90.97 −0.16
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Kelvin Thomson 64,161 70.76 −2.77
Liberal Shilpa Hegde 26,507 29.24 +2.77
Two-candidate-preferred result
Labor Kelvin Thomson 59,118 65.20 −7.44
Greens Tim Read 31,550 34.80 +34.80
Labor hold Swing N/A

References

    External links

    Coordinates: 37°43′44″S 144°56′35″E / 37.729°S 144.943°E / -37.729; 144.943

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