| Bowman |
Division of Braddon | Bradfield |
 Sid Sidebottom (ALP) His electorate website |  |
Location: Northern Tas: Burnie, Devonport, Ulverstone, Wynyard Division named for: Sir Edward Braddon, Premier of Tasmania and member of the first federal Parliament Median weekly family income: $689 (141st highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 2.5% (146th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 23.0% (97th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 14.1% (56th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 35.8% (110th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 26.7% (68th highest) Sitting member: Sid Sidebottom (Labor), elected 1998, 2001. Defeated 2004. Elected 2007 Born: 23 April 1951, Hobart. Career: Senior secondary college teacher. Central Coast Council 1996-98. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry 2001-04. Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Primary Industries and Resources 2001-03. Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Primary Industries 2002-03. Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries 2003-04. 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 05.7 1998 two-party majority: Labor 04.3 Effect of 2001 redistribution: no change 2001 two-party majority: Labor 06.0 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 01.1 2007 two-party majority: Labor 01.4 
2004 enrolment: 69,988 2007 enrolment: 71,022 (+01.5%) Braddon was created in 1955 when the old seat of Darwin, which had occupied the same area of north-western Tasmania since 1903, was renamed. The seat has always included Burnie and Ulverstone, and more recently Devonport as well. It has at different times been strongly Labor and strongly anti-Labor, reflecting an electorate which is both largely working-class but also parochial and conservative. Consistent with this, Braddon has the 9th lowest median income level of any seat, and the 4th lowest level of people born in non English speaking countries. At the same time it has low levels of families with dependent children and of dwellings being purchased: this is a seat of low-income home-owners, not homebuyers. Sid Sidebottom won Braddon for Labor in 1998 and 2001. He seemed well-entrenched, but was defeated by Mark Baker in 2004, a victim of Mark Latham's anti-logging forestry policy and John Howard's courting of the timber workers. With a new Labor leader and a new forests policy Sidebottom reclaimed the seat in 2007 with a 2.5% swing. Labor polled 70% of the two-party vote at Acton, and over 60% at Brooklyn, Haven View, Montello, Savage River and Waratah. The Liberals polled over 70% of the two-party vote at Sassafras and Togari. The 2008 redistribution has extended the seat down the west coast to take in Queenstown and Zeehan, without changing its political complexion much. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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