Electoral district of Blacktown

Blacktown
New South WalesLegislative Assembly
Location within Sydney
State New South Wales
Created 1941
MP Stephen Bali
Party Labor Party
Namesake Blacktown
Electors 55,952 (2017)
Area 33.03 km2 (12.8 sq mi)
Demographic Outer Metropolitan
Electorates around Blacktown:
Riverstone Riverstone Baulkham Hills
Mount Druitt Blacktown Seven Hills
Mount Druitt Prospect Prospect

Blacktown is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. The current member is Labor's Stephen Bali, who replaced former Labor leader John Robertson at a by-election in October 2017.

Blacktown is a 33.03 km² urban electorate in Sydney's outer west, taking in the suburbs of Blacktown, Doonside, Kings Park, Marayong, Woodcroft and parts of Bungarribee, Lalor Park, Quakers Hill and Seven Hills.[1]

History

Blacktown is known as a largely working-class area, and as such, the electorate has tended to strongly support the Labor Party, which has held the seat for all but three years since its inception. It was briefly marginal during the late 1950s, when long-serving member John Freeman was forced into retirement after trying and failing to find a safer seat. Liberal Alfred Dennis won the seat in the 1959 election, but held it for only one term before Labor regained it.

Since then, Labor's hold on the seat has only been seriously threatened once, when Labor suffered a swing of 18.7 percent amid its massive defeat in 2011. It is the only time since the 1950s that Labor has not won an outright majority of the primary vote in the seat.

Members for Blacktown

Member Party Period
  Frank Hill Labor 1941–1945
  John Freeman Labor 1945–1959
  Alfred Dennis Liberal 1959–1962
  Independent 1962–1962
  Jim Southee Labor 1962–1971
  Gordon Barnier Labor 1971–1981
  John Aquilina Labor 1981–1991
  Pam Allan Labor 1991–1999
  Paul Gibson Labor 1999–2011
  John Robertson Labor 2011–2017
  Stephen Bali Labor 2017–present

Election results

Blacktown state by-election, 2017[2][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Stephen Bali 31,031 71.6 +17.7
Christian Democrats Josh Green 6,540 15.1 +9.1
Greens Chris Winslow 3,825 8.8 +2.5
Independent Vivek Singha 1,966 4.5 +4.5
Total formal votes 43,362 95.1 −0.2
Informal votes 2,229 4.9 +0.2
Turnout 45,591 81.5 −7.5
Two-candidate-preferred result
Labor Stephen Bali 33,208 82.3 +19.1
Christian Democrats Josh Green 7,154 17.7 +17.7
Labor hold Swing N/A
New South Wales state election, 2015: Blacktown[4][5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor John Robertson 24,916 53.9 +9.5
Liberal Raman Bhalla 14,250 30.8 −5.3
Greens David Bate 2,937 6.3 +0.8
Christian Democrats Meena Hanna 2,750 5.9 +0.2
No Land Tax Julia Cacciotti 1,411 3.0 +3.0
Total formal votes 46,264 95.3 +0.6
Informal votes 2,262 4.7 −0.6
Turnout 48,526 89.0 −2.7
Two-party-preferred result
Labor John Robertson 26,679 63.2 +9.0
Liberal Raman Bhalla 15,547 36.8 −9.0
Labor hold Swing +9.0

References

  1. "Blacktown". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  2. "First Preference Votes Report Parliamentary Election: Blacktown". NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  3. "State Electoral District of Blacktown: Distribution of Preferences". NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 19 October 2017.
  4. State Electoral District of Blacktown: First Preference Votes, NSWEC.
  5. State Electoral District of Blacktown: Distribution of Preferences, NSWEC.
  • "Blacktown". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
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