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| Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Hunter, New South Wales
Northern New South Wales: Cessnock, Muswellbrook, Singleton, Toronto
Sitting member: Hon Joel Fitzgibbon (Labor), elected 1996
Enrolment at close of rolls: 113,469
2013 Labor majority over National 3.7%
2013 notional Labor majority over National 5.7%
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Candidates in ballot-paper order:
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1. Ruth Rogers
The Nationals |
2. John Harvey
Independent |
3. Hon Joel Fitzgibbon
Australian Labor Party |
4. Arjay Martin
Independent |
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5. Peter Morris
Australian Greens |
6. Richard Stretton
Christian Democrats |
7. John Warham
Independent |
8. Cordelia Troy
Independent |
2013 results
Statistics and history
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, since then it has been 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. From 1993 Maitland was split between Hunter and Patersonn, and the 2016
redistrubution has now removed Maitland altogether from 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, Labor MP for Hunter since 1996, was an electorate officer to his father Eric, a business operator and member of Cessnock City Council
before his election. He was on the opposition front bench from 1998 and was Minister for Defence from 2007 until June 2009, when he became the first
ministerial casualty of the Rudd Government. After Rudd's demise in 1010 he became the chief organiser of Rudd's return in 2013. His reward was to be
Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for the last two nonths of the Labor government. He is now shadow minister for the same portfolio.
The 2016 redistribution has abolished the adjoining seat of Charlton, causing Hunter to be moved sharply to the south, taking in the Lake Macquarie
towns such as Morriset and Toronto, while shedding rural areas in the north around Merriwa and Scone. This has increased the Labor majority to 5.7% and
rendered the seat reasonably safe. The Nationals candidate is Ruth Rogers, a Singleton Councillor.
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Prospective pendulum, showing all candidates
State and territory maps, showing new boundaries
The thirty seats that will decide the election
Other seats of interest
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