| North Sydney |
Division of O'Connor | Oxley |
 Hon Wilson Tuckey (Lib) His electorate website |  |
Location: Country WA: Albany, Geraldton, Katanning, Moora Division named for: Charles O'Connor, Engineer in Chief of Western Australia Median weekly family income: $721 (135th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 3.8% (130th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 33.5% (27th highest) Persons engaged in agriculture: 26.7% (1st highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 11.7% (104th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 38.8% (65th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 22.4% (100th highest) Sitting member: Hon Wilson Tuckey (Liberal), elected 1980, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1990, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 Born: 10 July 1935, Perth. Career: Businessman, hotelier. Councillor, Town of Carnarvon 1964-79, Mayor 1964-65, Shire President 1965-69. Member, Opposition Shadow Ministry 1984-89 and 1993-96. Shadow Minister for Small Business and Administrative Services 1984-87, Shadow Minister for Housing and Small Business 1987, Shadow Minister for Health 1987-88, Shadow Minister for Employment and Training , Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Science and Personnel 1994-96. Minister for Forestry and Conservation and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister 1998-2001, Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government 2002-03. 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 25.9 Effect of redistribution: 04.7 shift to Labor 1998 two-party majority: Liberal 15.1 Effect of 2001 redistribution: 00.8 shift to Liberal 2001 two-party majority: Liberal 19.1 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 20.4 2007 two-party majority: Liberal 16.6 
2004 enrolment: 82,841 2007 enrolment: 84,455 (+01.9%) O'Connor was created in 1980, uniting the western, rural halves of the old seats of Canning and Moore. It covers the Wheat Belt of WA, one of the world's great wheat-producing regions. It is the most rural electorate in Australia, with the highest proportion of its workforce engaged in agriculture of any seat. Like all rural seats, it has a relatively low median family income level, but also has a surprisingly high level of people in professional occupations. Forty years ago O'Connor would have been a safe Country Party seat, but with the decline of the Nationals in WA in the 1970s they have never come close to winning. Instead the seat has always been extremely safe for the very conservative Liberal Wilson Tuckey, who won it in 1980 and has held it ever since. During the Liberals' time in opposition from 1983 to 1996 Tuckey was an effective "head-kicker." In government he was forced to resign from the Howard ministry when he wrote to a (Labor) state minister asking that his son be excused a traffic fine. Now 73, he is the oldest member of the House, and the second-longest serving. In 2007 the Liberals won all but two of O'Connor's 142 booths (O'Connor has more booths than any other seat). They polled 96% of the two-party vote at Varley and also topped 90% at eight other small rural booths. Labor polled 51% in Beachlands and Denmark. The 2008 Western Australian redistribution has cut O'Connor in half, linking its southern half up with the city of Kalgoorlie to form a new O'Connor, while the northern half goes into the new seat of Durack. Tuckey will probably retire in 2010. | | 
Two-party vote by booth, 2007(south)  Click to enlarge map Two-party swing by booth, 2007(south)  Click to enlarge map |
