| Cowper |
Division of Cunningham | Curtin |
 Sharon Bird (ALP) Her electorate website |  |
Location: South Coast NSW: Bulli, Corrimal, Unanderra, Wollongong Division named for: Allan Cunningham, explorer of eastern Australia Median weekly family income: $1,000 (51st highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 13.6% (58th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 29.0% (45th highest) Persons in government employment: 22.0% (10th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 14.3% (49th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 38.0% (84th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 22.1% (106th highest) Sitting member: Sharon Bird (Labor), elected 2004, 2007 Born: 15 November 1962, Wollongong, NSW. Career: High school teacher, TAFE teacher. Electorate officer to Colin Hollis MP 1995-97, Senior Project Officer, NSW Department of Juvenile Justice 1997-2004. Councillor, Shellharbour City Council 1991-95. 1996 two-party majority: Labor 12.9 1998 two-party majority: Labor 18.2 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.4 shift to Liberal 2002 by-election two-candidate majority: Green over Labor 02.2 2004 two-party majority: Labor 11.5 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 00.2 shift to Labor 2007 notional two-party majority: Labor 11.7 2007 two-party majority: Labor 18.1 
2004 enrolment: 81,844 2007 enrolment: 91,663 (+12.0%) (new boundaries) Cunningham was created in 1949, based on the industrial centre of Wollongong, south of Sydney. As the region's heavy industry has declined, however, Cunningham has become a signicantly less working-class city, and the creation in 1984 of the new seat of Throsby removed some of the most blue-collar parts of the electorate. Today more of Cunningham's workforce work in government services for the Illawarra region than work in manufacturing. This is why the electorate has a higher proportion of people with professional occupations and a higher median income level than most regional city seats. All this explains the gradual decline in Labor strength in Cunningham, although the seat is still fairly reliably Labor. Members have included Labor cabinet ministers Rex Connor and Stewart West and Speaker of the House Stephen Martin. In 2002 Martin resigned his seat, and the ensuing by-election, taken when Labor leader Simon Crean was at the depths of his unpopularity, saw a shock win for the Green candidate Michael Organ. At the 2004 election Labor's Sharon Bird easily regained the seat for Labor. In 2007 she strengthened Labor's position with a 6.4% swing. Labor won every booth, all but two of them with more than 60% of the two-party vote. Labor polled 76% of the two-party vote in Russell Vale and also topped 75% in Coniston, Corrimal East, Otford and Wollongong Hospital. The Liberals' best results were 41% at Figtree Heights and 40% at Mount Ousley. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 2007
Click to enlarge map
|
