| Braddon |
Division of Bradfield | Brand |
 Hon Dr Brendan Nelson (Lib) His electorate website |  |
Location: Sydney: Chatswood, Killara, St Ives, Wahroonga Division named for: John Bradfield, designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge Median weekly family income: $1,695 (2nd highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 20.4% (32nd highest) Persons in professional occupations: 48.7% (3rd highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 15.5% (30th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 45.3% (18th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 21.5% (112th highest) Sitting member: Hon Dr Brendan Nelson (Liberal), elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Born: 19 August 1958, Melbourne. Career: Medical practitioner. Tasmanian President, Australian Medical Association 1990-92, Federal President 1993-95. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence 2001, Minister for Education, Science and Training 2001-06. Minister for Defence 2006-07. Leader of the Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition 2007-08. 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 25.8 1998 two-party majority: Liberal 23.2 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 01.9 shift to Labor 2001 two-party majority: Liberal 21.2 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 18.5 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 01.0 shift to Labor 2007 notional two-party majority: Liberal 17.5 2007 two-party majority: Liberal 13.5 
2004 enrolment: 90,021 2007 enrolment: 93,396 (+03.7%) (new boundaries) Bradfield was created in 1949, occupying the upper-class heartland of Sydney's North Shore. Since then it has expanded somewhat to the north-west, into slightly less aristocratic areas, but it still has the second-highest median income level of any seat, and has the third-highest proportion of people in professional occupations. This makes Bradfield one of the safest Liberal seats in Australia, and indeed for many years it was the safest of all. The slow drift of upper-class urban seats toward Labor in recent years means that this is no longer the case, but Bradfield is still a very safe seat. The 2006 redistribution added some politically marginal territory in Hornsby, but this is still a very safe Liberal seat. The first member for Bradfield was former Prime Minister Billy Hughes, at the end of his 55-year parliamentary career. Dr Brendan Nelson, a former president of the Australian Medical Association, won the seat in 1996. He was a member of the Labor Party only five years before being selected as a Liberal candidate for one of the party's most prized seats. Promoted rapidly, he entered the Cabinet as Education Minister in 2001, and shifted to Defence in January 2006. After the defeat of the Howard government and the withdrawal of Peter Costello, he was unexpectedly elected Leader of the Liberal Party, narrowly defeating Malcolm Turnbull. After less than a year in the job, however, he was deposed by Turnbull after failing to make any headway against Kevin Rudd's government. He then retired to the backbench, and his political future is unclear. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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