Australian federal election, 2016
Division of McMahon, New South Wales
Western Sydney: Erskine Park, Fairfield, Merrylands, Smithfield
Sitting member: Hon Chris Bowen (Labor), elected 2007
Enrolment at close of rolls: 106,231
2013 Labor majority over Liberal 5.3%
2016 notional Labor majority over Liberal 4.6%

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Candidates in ballot-paper order:

1, Astrid O'Neill Australian Greens	2. Victor Waterson Australia First	3. Hon Chris Bowen Australian Labor Party	4. Fadhel Shamasha Independent	5. Milan Maksimovic Christian Democrats	6. George Bilic Liberal Party

2013 results

Statistics and history

McMahon was created in 2010, when the old seat of Prospect was renamed. Prospect had been created in 1969, occupying a block of what was then
new working-class suburbia in western Sydney. Its borders have changed considerably at successive redistributions, but it has always been
centred on the Labor stronghold of Fairfield. The seat has a fairly high level of median family income, but a very low proportion of people
in professional occupations. It also has a high proportion of people born in non English speaking countries, including 9% born in South-East
Asia, and high level of families with dependent children. It is thus a seat of well-paid skilled workers and middle-class families, many of
them paying mortgages.

Chris Bowen, Labor MP for Prospect from 2004 to 2010 and for McMahon since 2010, was an industrial officer with the Finance Sector Union and an
adviser to NSW state ministers before his election. He was on the opposition front bench from 2006 and a minister in the Rudd- Gillard
Government. He resigned in February 2013 after the first failed Rudd counter-coup against Gillard, but returned with Rudd in June and became
Treasurer. He is now Shadow Treasurer.

The Labor margin in McMahon has declined in recent years as the western suburbs of Sydney become generally less reliable for Labor. But having
survived the 2013 defeat with a margin of 5.3%, Bowen is probably secure in this seat. The 2016 redistribution has extended it eastwards and
has slightly reduced the Labor majority. The Liberal candidate is George Bilic.

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