Adam Carr's guide to
The 2007 Australian federal election
The House of Representatives
New South Wales
New South Wales
| Hotham |
Division of Hughes | Hume |
| Hotham |
Division of Hughes | Hume |
 Danna Vale (Lib) Her Liberal Party website and her campaign website  Greg Holland (ALP) His ALP website |
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Location: Sydney: Engadine, Liverpool, Menai, Sutherland Division named for: Rt Hon Billy Hughes, Prime Minister of Australia 1916-22 Median weekly family income: $1,315 (16th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 17.1% (46th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 25.9% (67th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 7.8% (134th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 48.1% (7th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 32.5% (31st highest) Sitting member: Hon Danna Vale (Liberal), elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004 Born: 14 November 1944, Sydney. Career: Solicitor. Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence 2001-04 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 05.0 1998 two-party majority: Liberal 05.5 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.9 shift to Liberal 2001 two-party majority: Liberal 10.5 2004 primary votes: Labor 31.3, Liberal 55.3, Green 6.8 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 11.0 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 02.2 shift to Labor 2007 notional two-party majority: Liberal 08.8 2004 enrolment: 87,281 2007 enrolment: 91,175 (+04.5%) (new boundaries) Hughes was created in 1955, as a seat based on the Sutherland Shire and the mining communities on the coast between Sydney and Woollongong. It also usually included some Woollongong suburbs. On these boundaries it was a safe Labor seat, although it was lost to the Liberals in 1966 (when all of the present seat of Cook was in the seat). The 1984 redistribution, however, moved the seat north, making it an entirely Sutherland-based seat and politically marginal. On the 2004 boundaries, it was in the top 10% of electorates for median family income, although on the new boundaries it falls just outside this group. It still has among the highest proportions of families with dependent children and dwellings being purchased of any electorate: it is thus a high-income mortgage belt seat, full of young families with high incomes but high mortgages, which explains why it swung to the Liberals at each election from 1996 to 2004. In 2004 the Liberals carried every booth except Prince Edward Park and Como, polling more than 65% of the two-party vote in Alford's Point, Bangor, Barden Ridge, Illawong, Sandy Point and Woronora Heights, while Labor polled best in Como, Engadine, Heathcote, Sutherland and Moorebank. The 2006 redistribution has removed Como, but has also extended the seat to the north-west, taking in the centre of Liverpool and Warwick Farm, where Labor polled over 70% of the two-party vote in 2004. This has considerably increased the proportion of voters born in non English speaking countries, and reduced the Liberal margin somewhat, although the seat is still reasonably secure. Danna Vale has held Hughes for the Liberals since 1996, and had a brief and unhappy ministerial career. She is 62 but is standing again. Candidates in ballot-paper order |
|  Two-party vote by booth, 2004
Click to enlarge map
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