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Division of Kingsford Smith | Kingston |
 Hon Peter Garrett (ALP) His ministerial website and his electorate website |  |
Location: Sydney: Botany, Coogee, Maroubra, Mascot Division named for: Sir Charles Kingsford Smith, pioneer aviator Median weekly family income: $1,155 (28th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 30.1% (13th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 31.0% (34th highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 13.2% (71st highest) Couple families with dependent children: 34.1% (123rd highest) Dwellings being purchased: 14.7% (149th highest) Dwellings are flat, unit or apartment: 49.6% (5th highest) Sitting member: Hon Peter Garrett, AM (Labor), elected 2004, 2007 Born: 16 April 1953, Sydney. Career: Lead singer Midnight Oil 1977-2002, President Australian Conservation Foundation 1989-93 and 1998-2004, Board member Greenpeace International. Member of the Order of Australia 2003. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry 2005-07. Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts 2005-06, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage and Shadow Minister for the Arts 2006-07. Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts from 3 December 2007 1996 two-party majority: Labor 10.2 1998 two-party majority: Labor 13.4 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.7 shift to Liberal 2001 two-party majority: Labor 09.0 2004 two-party majority: Labor 09.0 Effect of 2006 redistribution: 00.4 shift to Liberal 2007 notional two-party majority: Labor 08.6 2007 two-party majority: Labor 13.3 
2004 enrolment: 85,877 2007 enrolment: 97,235 (+13.2%) (new boundaries) Kingsford Smith (until 2001 spelled Kingsford-Smith) was created in 1949, originally based on the beachside suburbs around Coogee, but expanding south to Maroubra and west to Mascot at successive redistributions. Originally a middle-class marginal, it became a safe Labor working-class seat in the 1960s and '70s. Since the 1980s it has become increasingly wealthy and multicultural, and now has a median family income level and a proportion of people in professional occupations in the top 25% of electorates. It also has the very low levels of families with dependent children and of dwellings being purchased typical of inner-city seats. The social change in this area has not much changed the seat's politics, however: it remains a fairly safe Labor seat. Members for Kingsford Smith have included Lionel Bowen, Deputy Prime Minister in the Hawke government and Laurie Brereton, for many years a power in the right-wing faction of the NSW Labor Party and a Cabinet minister in the Keating government. In 2004 Brereton arranged for Peter Garrett, rock singer and leading conservationist, to succeed him in his seat as a non-factional candidate. Overcoming initial scepticism, Garrett became Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts in 2006, but after the 2007 election he was given Environment, Heritage and the Arts, without responsibility for climate change or water policy. In 2007 Labor polled 77% of the two-party vote at Eastlakes, and also topped 70% at Hillsdale, three booths in Mascot and Prince of Wales. The Liberals won only one booth, with 58% at Maroubra East. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 20074
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