Electoral district of Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie
New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
State New South Wales
Dates current 1988–present
MP Leslie Williams
Party The Nationals
Electors 58,650 (2017)
Area 1,459.69 km2 (563.6 sq mi)

Port Macquarie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Leslie Williams of The Nationals.

It presently includes parts of coastal Port Macquarie-Hastings Council (including Port Macquarie, Dunbogan, Kendall, Kew, Laurieton, North Haven and West Haven) and the northeast of the City of Greater Taree (including Coopernook, Lansdowne, Moorland, Hannam Vale, Johns River and Stewarts River). The district also includes Lord Howe Island.[1]

History

Port Macquarie was created in 1988, replacing Oxley (which was recreated in 1991). It has historically been a comfortably safe seat for the National Party. Dating to its time as Oxley, the Port Macquarie area had been held by a conservative party since the return to single-member seats in 1927, and had been in National hands for all but six years since 1945.

This tradition was broken in 2002, when three-term National member and shadow minister Rob Oakeshott resigned from the party to become an independent. He was handily reelected as an independent in 2003 and 2007. In 2003, he was returned with 82 percent of the two-party vote, making Port Macquarie the safest seat in the legislature.

Oakeshott resigned in 2008 to run in a by-election for the federal seat of Lyne, which was based on Port Macquarie at the time. He was succeeded by longtime friend and staffer Peter Besseling.

However, Besseling was swept out by the Nationals' Leslie Williams at the 2011 state election amid the massive National wave that swept through rural NSW that year. This was due in part to voter anger at Oakeshott's support for the minority federal Labor government. Despite Oakeshott's personal popularity, the Port Macquarie area was still National heartland. "Traditional" two-party matchups between the Nationals and Labor during Oakeshott and Besseling's tenures had always shown Port Macquarie as a comfortably safe National seat.

Proving this, Williams easily retained Port Macquarie in 2015. Despite suffering a 9.8 percent swing against Labor, she still sits on a majority of 19 percent, making Port Macquarie the sixth-safest National seat and the 17th-safest Coalition seat.

Members for Port Macquarie

MemberPartyTerm
  Bruce Jeffery National 1988–1991
  Wendy Machin National 1991–1996
  Rob Oakeshott National 1996–2002
  Independent 2002–2008
  Peter Besseling Independent 2008–2011
  Leslie Williams National 2011–present

Election results

New South Wales state election, 2015: Port Macquarie[2][3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
National Leslie Williams 30,567 62.1 +9.7
Labor Kristy Quill 11,866 24.1 +18.4
Greens Drusi Megget 4,384 8.9 +5.2
Christian Democrats Ashley Prinable 1,572 3.2 +1.1
No Land Tax Paul Grasso 845 1.7 +1.7
Total formal votes 49,234 97.2 −0.9
Informal votes 1,426 2.8 +0.9
Turnout 50,660 91.5 +1.6
Two-party-preferred result
National Leslie Williams 31,699 69.0 −9.8
Labor Kristy Quill 14,272 31.1 +9.8
National hold Swing −9.8

References

  1. ↑ "Port Macquarie". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 2015-02-28.
  2. ↑ State Electoral District of Port Macquarie: First Preference Votes, NSWEC.
  3. ↑ State Electoral District of Port Macquarie: Distribution of Preferences, NSWEC.
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