| Deakin |
Division of Denison | Dickson |
 Hon Duncan Kerr (ALP) His ministerial website and his electorate website |  |
Location: Hobart: Glenorchy, Hobart, New Town, Taroona Division named for: Sir William Denison, Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land 1847-1855 Median weekly family income: $862 (93rd highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 7.1% (88th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 31.2% (33rd highest) Persons in government employment: 25.7% (5th highest)* Persons aged 65 and over: 15.0% (37th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 34.5% (119th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 25.9% (76th highest) Sitting member: Hon Duncan Kerr (Labor), elected 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Born: 26 February 1952, Hobart. Career: Lawyer, social worker. Crown Counsel Tasmanian Solicitor-General's Department, Dean Faculty of Law University of Papua New Guinea, Principal Solicitor NSW Aboriginal Legal Service, Legal Officer Hobart Community Legal Service. Minister for Justice 1993-96, Attorney-General 1993. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry 1996-2001. Shadow Minister for Immigration from 1996-97, Shadow Minister for Population and Immigration 1997, Assistant to the Leader of the Opposition on Multicultural Affairs 1996-97, Shadow Minister for the Environment 1997-98, Shadow Minister for the Arts 1998-2000, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs 1998-2001, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Population 2000-01 Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs from 3 December 2007 1996 two-party majority: Labor 11.8 1998 two-party majority: Labor 14.5 Effect of 2001 redistribution: no change 2001 two-party majority: Labor 14.3 2004 primary votes: Labor 49.5, Liberal 32.6, Green 14.6 2004 two-party majority: Labor 13.3 2007 two-party majority: Labor 15.6 
2004 enrolment: 69,146 2007 enrolment: 68,881 (-00.4%) Denison has existed since Tasmania was first divided into electorates in 1903, and has always taken in the city of Hobert and its suburbs on the western shore of the Derwent River. Its boundaries have expanded and contracted over successive redistributions but the character of the seat has changed very little. Although it has a relatively low median income level, like all Tasmanian seats, it has a high proportion of people in professional occupations, and particularly, as both a state capital and a hub for Commonwealth administration, a high level of government employment. This has contributed to the consolidation of the Labor vote in recent times, even as traditional blue-collar employment has disappeared from inner urban areas. Members for Denison have included Liberal ministers Athol Townley and Michael Hodgman. Duncan Kerr has held the seat for Labor since 1987, and was a junior minister in the Keating government. Denison used to be one of the most consistently marginal seats in the country (it has had 15 members, the equal highest number, with Bendigo), but since Kerr won it in 1987 it has become reliably Labor. Kerr was on the Opposition front bench 1996-2001, and in 2007 he became a parliamentary secretary in the Rudd government. In 2004 there was a strong swing to the Liberals in the northern, more working-class part of the seat, while the more affluent central and southern parts pf the seat swung to Labor. In 2007 swing followed the reverse pattern. Labor polled more than 60% of the two-aprty vote at all but six booths, reaching 79% at Roseneath, and topped 75% at Cascades, Collinsvale and Hobart West. The Liberals polled 58% at Lower Sandy Bay. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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