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Division of Cowan | Cowper |
 Luke Simpkins (Lib) No website |  |
Location: Perth: Ballajura, Girrawheen, Kingsley, Wanneroo Division named for: Edith Cowan, first woman member of an Australian Parliament, 1921 Median weekly family income: $993 (53th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 16.3% (47th highest) Persons born in the UK and Ireland: 12.5% (9th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 19.0% (128th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 7.3% (139th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 45.7% (17th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 45.4% (2nd highest) Sitting member: Luke Simpkins (Liberal), elected 2007 Born: 8 June 1964, Sydney. Career: Educated University of NSW, Edith Cowan University. Australian Federal Policeman 1986-87, Army officer 1988-2002, security consultant, ministerial adviser. 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 02.4 Effect of 1998 redistribution: 02.0 shift to Liberal 1998 two-party majority: Labor 03.6 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.5 shift to Liberal 2001 two-party majority: Labor 05.6 2004 two-party majority: Labor 00.8 2007 two-party majority: Liberal 01.7 
2004 enrolment: 85,393 2007 enrolment: 93,407 (+09.4%) Cowan was created in 1984, occupying a block of Perth's rapidly expanding northern suburbs. Cowan is a typical mortgage belt seat, with the second-highest of proportion of dwellings being purchased of any electorate, and a high proportion of families with dependent children. Like all the Perth seats, it also has a large number of immigrants from the UK, and also a fairly large number from non English speaking countries. The Labor vote is in the south of the seat, in suburbs around its stronhgold of Girrawheen, while the Liberal strength is in the more westerly suburbs such as Kingsley and Wanneroo. Graham Edwards, a former WA state minister who lost both legs in the Vietnam War, won the seat in 1998. Despite his large personal vote, he came very close to defeat in 2004. He retired in 2008, and the seat went to the Liberals' Luke Simpkins, a former Army officer. Cowan was one of only two seats gained by the Liberals at the 2007 election. The Liberals polled 60% of the two-party vote at Kingsley, Tapping and Woodvale. Labor polled 73% at Girrawheen Central, and over 60% at seven other booths, but the Liberals won the majority of booths in marginal areas. This area also swung heavily to the Liberals at the 2008 WA state election. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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