Division of Whitlam

The Division of Whitlam is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.

Whitlam Australian House of Representatives Division
From the 2016 federal election to 2025 From the 2025 federal election Interactive map of electorate boundaries
Created	2016
MP	Stephen Jones
Party	Labor
Namesake	Gough Whitlam
Electors	125,535 (2022)
Area	1,331 km2 (513.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

Whitlam is a predominantly middle and working-class electorate that covers 1,331 square kilometres in the southern Illawarra and Southern Highlands.^[1]

The current MP is Stephen Jones, a member of the Australian Labor Party. Jones was born in Wollongong and was a trade union official before first being elected to Parliament in 2010.^[1]

Geography

Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[2]

History

Gough Whitlam, the division's namesake

The division, previously named Throsby, was renamed in honour of Gough Whitlam, the Prime Minister of Australia from 1972–75, in a February 2016 electoral distribution.^[3] It came into effect from 2 July 2016, the date of the 2016 Australian federal election.

ABC election analyst Antony Green estimated that boundary changes to Throsby would reduce the Australian Labor Party's notional two-party-preferred margin from 7.8 to 6.9 percentage points.^[4] Despite this, the last member for Throsby, Stephen Jones, easily retained the seat with a healthy swing of over six points.

Whitlam has a strong working-class character due to the presence of industries such as steelmaking, coal mining and stevedoring in the Illawarra.

Members

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Stephen Jones (1965–)	Labor	2 July 2016 – 28 March 2025	Previously held the Division of Throsby. Served as minister under Albanese. Retired

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Whitlam

2025 Australian federal election: Whitlam^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Greens	Jamie Dixon
	Liberal	Nathaniel Smith
	Independent	Ben Britton
	Trumpet of Patriots	Angelo Cuda
	One Nation	Sharon Cousins
	Libertarian	Raymond Khoury
	Citizens	Cheryl Ann Hinton
	Independent	Paddy Moylan
	Labor	Carol Berry
	Independent	Glenn Butterfield
Total formal votes
Informal votes
Turnout

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2025 Australian federal election in New South Wales § Whitlam.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Whitlam^[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Stephen Jones	49,218	45.01	−3.79
	Liberal	Mike Cains	30,849	28.21	+28.21
	Greens	Jamie Dixon	11,779	10.77	+1.56
	One Nation	Colin Hughes	7,543	6.90	+6.90
	United Australia	Allan Wode	5,886	5.38	−3.46
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Wheeler	4,062	3.72	+3.72
Total formal votes			109,337	95.10	+2.35
Informal votes			5,637	4.90	−2.35
Turnout			114,974	91.69	−1.57
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Stephen Jones	65,683	60.07	−0.84
	Liberal	Mike Cains	43,654	39.93	+39.93
	Labor hold		Swing	N/A

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in New South Wales § Whitlam.[edit]

Alluvial diagram for preference flows in the seat of Whitlam in the 2022 federal election. Y indicates at what stage the winning candidate had over 50% of the votes and was declared the winner.