| Corangamite |
Division of Corio | Cowan |
 Richard Marles (ALP) His electorate website |  |
Location: South-west Vic: Corio, Geelong, Leopold, Norlane Division named for: Corio Bay, an Indigenous word meaning "small marsupial" Median weekly family income: $828 (106th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 11.0% (69th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 20.7% (123rd highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 14.3% (50th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 36.0% (108th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 28.7% (51st highest) Sitting member: Richard Marles (Labor), elected 2007 Born: 13 July 1967, Melbourne. Career: Educated Melbourne University. Lawyer. Legal Officer, Transport Workers' Union of Australia, 1994-98; Federal Assistant Secretary 1998-2000, Assistant Secretary, Australian Council of Trade Unions 2000-07. 1996 two-party majority: Labor 06.8 1998 two-party majority: Labor 11.4 2001 two-party majority: Labor 08.7 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 00.2 shift to Liberal 2004 two-party majority: Labor 05.6 2004 two-party majority: Labor 08.9 
2004 enrolment: 88,186 2007 enrolment: 90,454 (+02.6%) Corio has existed since Federation, and has always been based on the provincial city of Geelong, though at times it has also included most of the western suburbs of Melbourne. Since the 1980s is has consisted only of Geelong and a few rural areas to the north. Like most regional seats it has a relatively low median income level and a low proportion of people in professional occupations. As a manufacturing centre, however, Geelong has a higher level of people born in non English speaking countries than most regional cities. After being held by the Liberals through the 1950s and '60s, Corio has become a steadily stronger seat for Labor over the past 30 years. Members have included Liberal minister Sir Hubert Opperman and Labor ministers Jack Dedman and Gordon Scholes. In retrospect it seems that Opperman, a former champion cyclist, held what was basically a Labor seat on his personal vote alone. Gavan O'Connor won the seat in 1993. O'Connor, a former farmer, was on the Labor front bench from 1998 to 2006, but in 2006 he lost his preselection to ACTU assistant secretary Richard Marles. In 2007 he contested the seat as an independent, but was easily defeated by Marles. In 2007 Labor polled 73% of the two-party vote at Corio Central, and also polled more than 70% of the vote at two other Corio booths, and at Norlane and North Shore. The Liberals won only four booths, polling 62% at Aberdeen. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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