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
Division of Whitlam in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election
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 – present	Previously held the Division of Throsby. Incumbent. Currently a minister in the Albanese Government

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Whitlam

2022 Australian federal election: Whitlam^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Stephen Jones	49,218	45.01	−3.79
	Liberal	Mike Cains	30,849	28.21	+2.75
	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	+0.84
	Labor hold		Swing	−0.84

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.

Primary vote results in Whitlam (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Labor

  Liberal

  National

  Greens

  United Australia Party

  One Nation

Two-candidate-preferred vote results in Whitlam

References

1. "Whitlam - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
2. Muller, Damon (14 November 2017). "The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
3. "Federal seat of Throsby to become Whitlam". ABC News. 14 January 2016. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
4. Green, Antony. "2015–16 New South Wales Federal Redistribution". ABC News. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
5. Whitlam, NSW, 2022 Tally Room, Australian Electoral Commission.

External links

• AEC: Profile of the electoral division of Whitlam (NSW)

34.534°S 150.552°E / -34.534; 150.552