Electoral district of Newcastle

This article is about the New South Wales state electorate. For the Australian federal electorate, see Division of Newcastle. For the abolished South Australian electorate, see Electoral district of Newcastle (South Australia).

Newcastle New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Location in Hunter-Sydney-Illawarra region
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1859–1894 1904–present
MP	Tim Crakanthorp
Party	Australian Labor Party
Area	121.22 km² (46.8 sq mi)

Newcastle is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales named after and including Newcastle. It was represented since 2011 by Tim Owen of the Liberal Party of Australia who became an independent in 2014 shortly before resigning from parliament. The 2014 Newcastle by-election occurred on 25 October, Tim Crakanthorp of the Australian Labor Party regained the seat.

The district takes in the eastern part of the City of Newcastle, including the parts of the suburbs from Hexham to Mayfield lying to the east of the Main North railway line, Broadmeadow, Hamilton South, Merewether Heights and Merewether and the suburbs further east, including central Newcastle and Hamilton. It also includes the Port Stephens Council suburbs of Fern Bay and Fullerton Cove.^[1]

History

Newcastle was created in 1859 from part of North Eastern Boroughs. It gained a second member in 1880 and a third member in 1889.^[2] With the abolition of multi-member electorates in 1894, it was divided into Newcastle East, Newcastle West, Kahibah, Waratah and Wickham. Newcastle East and Newcastle West were abolished in 1904, with the reduction in the size of Parliament and Newcastle was recreated. With the introduction of proportional representation in 1920, it absorbed Kahibah, Wallsend and Wickham and elected five members. With the end of proportional representation in 1927, Newcastle was split into the single-member electorates of Newcastle, Hamilton, Kahibah and Wallsend. Changes to the electoral boundaries were debated.^[3]^[4]

It has since been usually held by the Australian Labor Party; the Upper Hunter is one of the few country areas where Labor consistently does well. This pattern was threatened in early 2007, when sitting member Bryce Gaudry lost his preselection to a former local newsreader, Jodi McKay. Gaudry opted to stand as an independent and as a consequence split the Labor Party's vote. Independent former Lord Mayor of Newcastle John Tate came close to winning the seat after preferences but McKay managed to hold on. Labor's previous margin of over 15% had been slashed to as little as 1.4%, making it one of Labor's most marginal seats.

At the New South Wales state election, 2011, Liberal Tim Owen defeated incumbent and one-term member McKay and popular Independent Tate, marking the first time the Liberals or their predecessors had won Newcastle as a single-member seat in over a century. This was one of many gains the Liberals made in what was previously Labor heartland.

Owen became an independent and moved to the crossbench on 6 August 2014 after accusations at ICAC.^[5] He resigned from parliament on 12 August 2014 after evidence of corruption was uncovered.^[6] A 2014 Newcastle by-election was held.

Members for Newcastle

First incarnation (1859—1880, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Arthur Hodgson	None	1859–1860
	James Hannell	None	1860–1869
	George Lloyd	None	1869–1877
	Richard Bowker	None	1877–1880

(1880—1889, 2 members)
Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term
	James Fletcher	None	1880–1887		George Lloyd	None	1880–1882
				James Ellis	None	1882–1885
				George Lloyd	None	1885–1887
		Protectionist	1887–1889		James Ellis	Free Trade	1887–1889

(1889—1894, 3 members)
Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term
	James Fletcher	Protectionist	1889–1891		Alexander Brown	Protectionist	1889–1891		William Grahame	Protectionist	1889–1889
	James Fletcher	Protectionist	1889–1891	James Curley	Alexander Brown	Protectionist	1889–1891	Free Trade	1889–1891
	David Scott	Labour	1891–1894		John Fegan	Labour	1891–1894		William Grahame	Protectionist	1891–1894

Second incarnation (1904—1920, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	William Dick	Liberal Reform	1904–1907
	Owen Gilbert	Liberal Reform	1907–1910
	Arthur Gardiner	Labour	1910–1917
	Arthur Gardiner	Independent Labor	1917–1920

(1920—1927, 5 members)
Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term	Member		Party	Term
	Arthur Gardiner	Independent	1920–1922		John Estell	Labor	1920–1922		John Fegan	Nationalist	1920–1922		William Kearsley	Labor	1920–1921		Hugh Connell	Labor	1920–1927
	Arthur Gardiner	Independent	1920–1922		John Estell	Labor	1920–1922	David Murray	John Fegan	Nationalist	1920–1922	Labor	1921–1927
	Walter Skelton	Independent	1922–1925		Jack Baddeley	Labor	1922–1927			Magnus Cromarty	Nationalist			1922–1925
	Walter Skelton	Protestant Labor	1925–1927		Jack Baddeley	Labor	1922–1927		George Booth	Labor	1925–1927

(1927—present, 1 member)
Member		Party	Term
	Peter Connolly	Labor	1927–1935
	Frank Hawkins	Labor	1935–1968
	Arthur Wade	Labor	1968–1988
	George Keegan	Independent	1988–1991
	Bryce Gaudry	Labor	1991–2007
	Bryce Gaudry	Independent	2007–2007
	Jodi McKay	Labor	2007–2011
	Tim Owen	Liberal	2011–2014
	Tim Owen	Independent	2014–2014
	Tim Crakanthorp	Labor	2014–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Newcastle

New South Wales state election, 2015: Newcastle^[7]^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Tim Crakanthorp	19,324	40.1	+9.1
	Liberal	Karen Howard	17,082	35.5	−1.7
	Greens	Michael Osborne	8,824	18.3	+3.3
	Cyclists	Sam Reich	817	1.7	+1.7
	Christian Democrats	Milton Caine	787	1.6	+0.3
	No Land Tax	Jasmin Addison	714	1.5	+1.5
	Socialist Alliance	Steve O'Brien	601	1.2	−0.2
Total formal votes			48,149	96.3	−0.4
Informal votes			1,837	3.7	+0.4
Turnout			49,986	90.3	+1.1
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Tim Crakanthorp	24,384	57.4	+9.8
	Liberal	Karen Howard	18,116	42.6	−9.8
	Labor gain from Liberal		Swing	+9.8

References

↑ "Newcastle Electoral District". New South Wales Electoral Commission. 26 September 2013. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
↑ "A Third Member for Newcastle". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. 16 March 1888. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
↑ "District News". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. 30 June 1893. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
↑ "Division of Electorates". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. 4 June 1901. Retrieved 6 February 2015.
↑ Two NSW Liberal MPs stand aside from the party following ICAC revelations on campaign funding: ABC 6 August 2014
↑ Newcastle MP Tim Owen and Charlestown MP Andrew Cornwell resign from NSW Parliament following ICAC donations inquiry: SMH 12 August 2014
↑ State Electoral District of Newcastle: First Preference Votes, NSWEC.
↑ State Electoral District of Newcastle: Distribution of Preferences, NSWEC.

External links

"Newcastle". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 12 April 2015.

Electoral districts of New South Wales

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, January 20, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.