Division of Gellibrand

Gellibrand
Australian House of Representatives Division

Division of Gellibrand in Victoria, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created 1949
MP Tim Watts
Party Labor
Namesake Joseph Gellibrand
Electors 108,402 (2016)
Area 102 km2 (39.4 sq mi)
Demographic Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Gellibrand is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1949 and is named after Joseph Gellibrand, a pioneer settler of the Melbourne area. It is located in the industrial inner western suburbs of Melbourne and includes Altona, Ardeer, Brooklyn, Footscray, Deer Park, Kingsville, Newport, Seddon, Spotswood, Sunshine, Tottenham, Williamstown, Yarraville and parts of Altona Meadows and Maidstone.

The Division has been held by the Australian Labor Party for its entire existence; it is located in Labor's traditional heartland of western Melbourne, and is characterised by a very diverse, multicultural population. Labor has never tallied less than 60 percent of the two-party vote. Its most prominent members have been Ralph Willis, a Cabinet minister in the Hawke and Keating Governments, and Nicola Roxon, a Cabinet minister in the Rudd Government and the first and second Gillard Governments. Nicola Roxon was Australia's first female Attorney General in the Gillard Government.

In recent years there has been considerable gentrification in the inner-city suburbs such as Footscray, Williamstown and Yarraville, and a consequent rise in the progressive Greens vote, which rose to 37 percent in Footscray in the 2013 election. In the west, a solid patch of working-class suburbia remain strongly Labor-leaning.

For several years, Gellibrand was Labor's safest seat in the Federal Parliament. It is currently one of the safest for Labor on a 16.5 percent margin. The current member for Gellibrand since the 2013 election is Labor's Tim Watts.

Members

MemberPartyTerm
  Jack Mullens Labor 1949–1955
  Labor (Anti-Communist) 1955–1955
  Hector McIvor Labor 1955–1972
  Ralph Willis Labor 1972–1998
  Nicola Roxon Labor 1998–2013
  Tim Watts Labor 2013–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2016: Gellibrand[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Tim Watts 43,340 46.90 +0.86
Liberal Ben Willis 24,607 26.63 −0.08
Greens Jonathon Marsden 19,855 21.48 +4.75
Independent David Tran 4,615 4.99 +4.99
Total formal votes 92,417 95.98 +1.60
Informal votes 3,868 4.02 −1.60
Turnout 96,285 88.82 −1.79
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Tim Watts 63,060 68.23 +1.70
Liberal Ben Willis 29,357 31.77 −1.70
Labor hold Swing +1.70

References

  1. Gellibrand, VIC, Virtual Tally Room 2016, Australian Electoral Commission.

External links

Coordinates: 37°50′10″S 144°50′46″E / 37.836°S 144.846°E / -37.836; 144.846

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