| Hume |
Division of Hunter | Indi |
 Hon Joel Fitzgibbon (ALP) His ministerial website and his electorate website |  |
Location: North Central NSW: Cessnock, Kurri Kurri, Muswellbrook, Singleton Division named for: The Hunter River, named for John Hunter, Governor of New South Wales 1795-99 Median weekly family income: $861 (94th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 2.4% (147th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 19.5% (125th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 12.2% (95th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 39.3% (59th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 25.7% (79th highest) Sitting member: Hon Joel Fitzgibbon (Labor), elected 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Born: 16 January 1962, Bellingen, NSW. Career: Automotive electrician, electorate officer to Eric Fitzgibbon MHR 1990-96, part-time TAFE lecturer, small business operator. Councillor, Cessnock City Council 1987-95, Deputy Mayor 1989-90. Director Hunter-Manning Tourist Authority 1987-89, Delegate Hunter Region Association of Councils 1994-95. Campaign Director, NSW State Elections 1991 and 1995. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry 1998-2007. Shadow Minister for Small Business and Tourism 1998-2001, Shadow Minister for Resources 2001-03, Shadow Minister for Tourism 2003, Shadow Minister for Mining, Energy and Forestry 2003-04, Shadow Minister for Banking and Financial Services 2004-05, Shadow Assistant Treasurer and Revenue 2004-2006, Shadow Minister for Small Business and Competition 2005-06, Shadow Minister for Defence 2006-07. Minister for Defence from 3 December 2007 1996 two-party majority: Labor 07.0 1998 two-party majority: Labor 14.7 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.8 shift to Liberal 2001 two-party majority: Labor 10.9 2004 two-party majority: Labor 13.8 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 02.6 shift to National 2007 notional two-party majority: Labor 11.2 2007 two-party majority: Labor 15.9 
2004 enrolment: 88,996 2007 enrolment: 90,202 (+01.4%) (new boundaries) Hunter has existed since Federation, and has always occupied most of the Hunter Valley upstream from Newcastle. Before 1949 its largest centre was usually Maitland, but in 1949 Maitland was moved into Paterson, leaving Hunter dominated by Cessnock and the small mining communities around it, although it has usually included at least some of the farming and wine-growing towns of the Upper Hunter as well. On its present boundaries only 4.3% of Hunter's workforce is engaged in agriculture. The 1984 redistribution put Maitland back in Hunter, but since 1993 only the western part of the city has been in the seat. Hunter has a fairly high median family income for a regional seat, reflecting high wages in the mining industry, but a very low proportion of people born in non English speaking countries and of people in professional occupations. Hunter is one of the least "ethnic" of Labor-held seats. Hunter's first and most distinguished member was the first Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Edmund Barton, who was elected unopposed in 1901. Not longer after his departure, however, Labor began to contest the seat, and it has been held continously by Labor since 1910. Two Federal Labor Leaders have held Hunter: Matthew Charlton from 1910 to 1928 and Dr H.V. Evatt from 1958 to 1960, at the end of his career: Hunter and Kooyong are the only seats to have been held by three party leaders. Joel Fitzgibbon has held the seat since 1996, in succession to his father. Fitzgibbon was on the Opposition front bench from 1998, and became Minister for Defence in the Rudd government in 2007. In 2007 Labor gained a fairly modest swing of 4.8%, polling 81% of the two-party vote at the Calvary Retirement Community in Cessnock, and topping 75% at Aberdare, Abermain, Cessnock East, two booths in Kurri Kurri, Pelaw Main and Weston. The Nationals won most of the smaller upcountry booths, polling 71% of the two-party vote at Bunnan. | |  Two-party vote by booth, 2007
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