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| Australian federal election, 2016
Division of O'Connor, Western Australia
Southern Western Australia: Albany, Kalgoorlie, Katanning, Narrogin
Sitting member: Rick Wilson (Liberal), elected 2013
Enrolment at close of rolls: 101,914
2013 Liberal majority over Nationals: 1.0%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 17.3%
2016 notional Liberal majority over Nationals: 3.6%
2016 notional Liberal majority over Labor 15.3%
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Candidates in ballot-paper order:
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1. Rick Wilson
Liberal Party |
2. John Hassell
The Nationals |
3. Trevor Young
Australian Christians |
4. Hon Jon Ford
Australian Labor Party |
5. Stephen Carson
Rise Up Australia |
6. Giz Watson
Australian Greens |
2013 results
Statistics and history
O'Connor was created in 1980, uniting the western, rural halves of the old seats of Canning and Moore. It then covered the whole of the Wheat Belt of WA, one of the world's great wheat-producing regions. It was the most rural electorate in Australia, with the highest proportion of its workforce engaged in agriculture of any seat. Like all rural seats, it had and still has a relatively low median family income level, but also has a surprisingly high level of people in professional occupations.
The 2010 redistribution, however, again cut the Wheat Belt in half, with the northern half going into the new seat of Durack and the southern half being united with the city of Kalgoorlie and the southern part of outback WA to form O'Connor. Kalgoorlie was once a Labor stronghold but in recent years the Labor vote has declined so far that the state seat now elects a Nationals MLA.
Until 2010, O'Connor had always been an extremely safe seat for its first and only member, the very conservative and eccentric Liberal Wilson Tuckey. 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 foolishly wrote to a (Labor) state minister asking that his son be excused a traffic fine. By 2010, when Tuckey was 75, voters had apparently tired of him, and he was defeated by a Nationals candidate, Tony Crook. Crook didn't like being a federal MP and retired after one term, whereupon the seat returned to the Liberals.
Rick Wilson, Liberal MP for O'Connor since 2013, was a farmer at Katanning before entering politics. While Labor is no longer a threat in Kalgoorlie, Wilson could be in danger from the Nationals. Their candidate is John Hassell, a wheat farmer and director of Co-operative Bulk Handling. The Labor candidate is Jon Ford, a former Legislative Councillor and state minister.
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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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