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| Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Wills, Victoria
Northern Melbourne: Brunswick, Coburg, Glenroy, Pascoe Vale
Sitting member: Hon Kelvin Thomson (Labor), elected 1996. Retiring 2016
Enrolment at close of rolls: 113,856
2013 Labor majority over Greens: 15.2%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 20.8%
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Candidates in ballot-paper order:
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1. Kyung Hong
Liberal Party |
2. Ash Blackwell
Drug Law Reform |
3. Tristram Chellew
Australian Sex Party |
4. Samantha Ratnam
Australian Greens |
5. Dougal Gillman
Renewable Energy Party |
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6. Will Fulgenzi
Socialist Equality Party |
7. Zane Alcorn
Socialist Alliance |
8. Camille Sydow
Animal Justice Party |
9. Francesco Timpano
Independent |
10. Peter Khalil
Australian Labor Party |
2013 results
Statistics and history
Wills was created in 1949, in Melbourne's working-class northern suburbs, originally based on Coburg. Successive redistributions have expanded it, mainly to the north, without changing its social or political character. The southern part of the seat is now being colonised by upper-income preofessionals, which explains the seat's relatively high median family income and level of people in professional occupations. The seat has a high proportion of people born in non English speaking countries, and in recent years has acquired a significant Muslim population, mainly Turks. Wills has always been a safe Labor seat and has never been won by the non-Labor side, although it has elected an independent.
The most eminent member for Wills has been Bob Hawke, the longest- serving Labor Prime Minister. Following Hawke's resignation the seat was won by an independent, Phil Cleary, a popular local figure. Cleary's election was found to be invalid, but he returned to win again in 1993. He was defeated in 1996 by Labor's Kelvin Thomson.
Kelvin Thomson, Labor MP for Wills since 1996, was a Commonwealth public servant before being elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1988. In 1996 he resigned, and successfully challenged Cleary in Wills. He was on the Opposition front bench from 1997, and was appointed shadow attorney-general in 2006, but in March 2007 he was forced to resign when it was revealed that in 2000 his office had given a letter of reference to a criminal. Thomson spent most of the Rudd-Gillard Government on the backbench, but was a Parliamentary Secretary during the government's last year. He is retiring at this election.
After a spirited preselection contest, Peter Khalil was endorsed as Labor's new candidate. Khalil, who is of Egyptian Christian background, served in Iraq as Director of National Security Policy for the Coalition Provisional Authority, for which he was awarded the Australian Overseas Humanitarian Service medal. He was a foreign policy and national security adviser to Kevin Rudd, and more recently Director of Corporate Affairs, Strategy and Communications at SBS, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Centre for International Security Studies at Sydney University. These credentials are likely to make him a senior figure in the Victorian Right of the Labor Party fairly quickly.
In 2013 the Greens came second in Wills, although Labor's margin was a hefty 15.2%. The Greens candidate won several booths in Brunswick and North Fitzroy. As demographic change in this part of Melbourne continues, the Greens may emerge as a major threat to Labor's hold on this seat. The Greens candidate in 2016 is Samantha Ratnam, a Moreland City Councillor. The Liberal candidate is Kevin Hong, a company director.*
* Hong nominated as Kyung Hong, but the Liberal Patry website calls him Kevin Hong.
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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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