DIVISION OF BENNELONG

The 'Division of Bennelong' is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Bennelong, an Aboriginal man befriended by the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Bennelong is based in Northern Sydney, including the suburbs of Eastwood, Epping and Ryde, and has been held by the Liberal Party since its creation. In that time it has had only two members. The current member, John Howard, has held the seat for 33 years and has been Prime Minister of Australia since 1996.
Bennelong, Lingiari in the Northern Territory and also Bonner in Queensland are the only three electoral divisions named after indigenous Australians.
Interestingly, however, the two-party preferred vote for the Liberals actually declined by 3.4% in the 2004 election, contrary to a strong national trend to the coalition (and a particularly strong one to the Coalition in outer-suburban metropolitan seats), making Bennelong a marginal seat, with a margin of just 4.3%.
Bennelong is currently regarded as a key marginal seat. If Howard were to contest Bennelong at the 2007 election and lose, it would be only the second time in Australian history that a sitting Prime Minister has been defeated in his own electorate, the other being Stanley Bruce. The Australian Labor Party announced on 25 February 2007^[1] that former ABC journalist, Maxine McKew, will stand against John Howard as the ALP candidate for Bennelong in the coming Federal election.
The 2006 redistribution has pushed this margin slightly further into Labor territory, due to the inclusion of predominantly working class and public housing suburb of Ermington into its boundaries^[2].

Contents

Members

Election results

Polls

Notes

References

Members

Member		Party	Term
	John Cramer	Liberal	1949—1974
	John Howard	Liberal	1974—present

Election results

Polls

'Bennelong: Two-party-preferred'

Date	Poller	Coalition	Labor
3 October 1998	1998 election [1]	56.03%	43.97%
4–5 April 2001	Morgan [2]	57%	43%
10 November 2001	2001 election [3]	57.70%	42.30%
9 October 2004	2004 election [4]	54.33%	45.67%
14–15 February 2007	Morgan [5]	45%	55%
9–10 May 2007	Galaxy [6]	48%	52%
8–9 August 2007	Galaxy [7]	47%	53%

Notes

1. Former ABC journalist to challenge Howard's seat
2. http://www.pollbludger.com/category/federal-redistributions/

References

★ Psephos: Adam Carr's Election Archive

★ The Poll Bludger

★ ABC Elections

★ Australian Electoral Commission