Electoral district of Fairfield

Fairfield is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Australian state of New South Wales in Sydney's West. Fairfield has historically been one of the safest Labor seats in New South Wales and is considered a part of Labor's heartland in Western Sydney.^[1][2] It is currently represented by David Saliba of the Labor Party, who was elected at the 2023 New South Wales state election.

Fairfield New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Interactive map of district boundaries from the 2023 state election
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1953–present
MP	David Saliba
Party	Labor
Namesake	Fairfield
Electors	53,676 (2019)
Area	27.66 km2 (10.7 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner-metropolitan
Electorates around Fairfield: Prospect Granville Granville Prospect Fairfield Auburn Cabramatta Cabramatta East Hills

Fairfield was created in 1953.

Geography

On its current boundaries, Fairfield includes the suburbs of Carramar, Fairfield, Fairfield East, Fairfield Heights, Guildford West, Old Guildford, Wakeley, Woodpark, Yennora and parts of Canley Vale, Fairfield West, Guildford, Prairiewood, Smithfield and Villawood.^[3]

Demographics

Fairfield is similar to much of Western Sydney in the fact that a significant size of the population were either born overseas or have parents who were born overseas. Approximately 50% of the population which is more than double the Australian average at 22.2% were born overseas of which most were born in either East Asian countries such as Vietnam and China or from Middle Eastern countries like Iraq and Lebanon. Despite this high level of foreign born residents, 83.4% had Australian citizenship which is only slightly lower than the national average of 86.1%. As for languages spoken at home English was the most common language spoken by 29.5%, followed by Vietnamese with 14.5%, Arabic at 11.7% and Assyrian at 6.7%. No other languages were spoken by more than 5% of the population. Catholicism was the most common religion followed by nearly one third of the population at 32.6%. This was followed by Buddhism at 16.7%, Islam at 8.3%, Anglicanism at 8.1% and followers of Eastern Orthodox Christianity at 6.6% of the total population. Median incomes for the population aged 15 years and over was in all 3 categories lower than the national average.

Members for Fairfield

Member		Party	Period
	Clarrie Earl [4]	Labor	1953–1962
	Jack Ferguson [5]	Labor	1962–1968
	Eric Bedford [6]	Labor	1968–1981
	Janice Crosio [7]	Labor	1981–1988
	Geoff Irwin [8]	Labor	1988–1995
	Joe Tripodi [9]	Labor	1995–2011
	Guy Zangari [10]	Labor	2011–2023
	David Saliba	Labor	2023–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Fairfield

2023 New South Wales state election: Fairfield^[11][12]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	David Saliba	24,340	51.1	−5.8
	Liberal	Aaryen Pillai	9,675	20.3	−6.6
	Independent	Hikmat Odesh	4,891	10.3	+10.3
	Independent	Severino Lovero	3,219	6.8	+6.8
	Greens	Monika Ball	2,615	5.5	−1.7
	Legalise Cannabis	Jacob Potkonyak	1,841	3.9	+3.9
	Public Education	Robyn Leggatt	1,017	2.1	+2.1
Total formal votes			47,598	92.9	−1.2
Informal votes			3,625	7.1	+1.2
Turnout			51,223	85.2	−2.5
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	David Saliba	27,792	70.9	+4.0
	Liberal	Aaryen Pillai	11,414	29.1	−4.0
	Labor hold		Swing	+4.0

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2023 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § Fairfield.[edit]

References

1. "Labor has 'let down heartland': O'Farrell". 5 August 2009.
2. "Eight Western Sydney Labor MPs rebel against Nathan Rees on Parklea prison privatisation". 7 August 2009.
3. "Fairfield". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
4. "Mr Clarence Joseph Earl (1913-1998)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
5. "The Hon. (Jack) Laurie John Ferguson (1924–2002)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
6. "The Hon. Eric Lance Bedford (1928-2006)". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
7. "The Hon. Janice Ann Crosio (1939– )". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
8. "Mr (Geoff) Geoffrey Stewart Irwin (1948- )". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
9. "Mr Joseph Guerino Tripodi". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
10. "Mr (Guy) Gaetano Zangari". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 4 April 2019.
11. LA First Preference: Fairfield, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
12. LA Two Candidate Preferred: Fairfield, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.