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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Ballarat, Victoria
Named for: City of Ballarat, originally spelled Ballaarat, named by William Yuille in 1838 (Indigenous
word meaning "resting place")
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Central Victoria: Ballarat, Creswick, Daylesford, Lethbridge, Linton
Enrolment at 2019 election: 114,954
Enrolment at 2022 election: 110,570 (-03.7)
1999 republic referendum: No 59.1
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 70.5
2023 Voice referendum: No 57.9
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Sitting member: Hon Catherine King (Labor):
Elected 2001, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022
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2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.2%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.7%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.9%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 7.3%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.0%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 13.0%
2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 13.0%
Status: Fairly safe Labor
2022 results
Statistics and history
Announced candidates:
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Hon Catherine King
Australian Labor Party |
Wes McKnight
Liberal Party |
Division of Ballarat
Ballarat (which was spelled Ballaarat until 1977) has existed since Federation, and has always taken in a block of
territory centering on the regional city of Ballarat. Like most regional seats, it has a fairly low relative income
level, and a low proportion of people born in non English speaking countries. Being close to Melbourne and subject to
suburbanisation, it also has a high proportion of families with dependent children and dwellings being purchased.
Labor's strength lies the eastern and southern parts of the city of Ballarat, plus smaller centres such as Daylesford
and Creswick which have been heavily colonised by exurbanites and pursuers of alternative lifetsyles.
Ballarat's most distinguished member has been Prime Minister
Alfred Deakin, who held it from Federation
until 1913. After being a marginal seat in the 1940s and early '50s, it became a stronghold of the DLP and was safe
for the Liberals for 25 years after the 1955 Labor Split. Labor finally regained the seat in 1980. Since then it has
grown steadily better for Labor, and has not elected a Liberal since 1998.
The 2021 redistribution removed the Bacchus Marsh and Ballan areas, which went into the new seat of Hawke, and
extended the seat to the south-west into rural areas previously in Corangamite and Wannon. This reduced the Labor margin
from 11% to about 10%. The 2024 redistribution has made only minor changes. Central Victoria has been steadily
improving for Labor at both state and federal levels for the
past 20 years, and King seems fairly secure in this seat.
Catherine King, Labor MP for Ballarat since 2001, won the seat
against the trend of the 2001 election: Ballarat was the only seat captured by Labor from the Howard Government at that election. She
survived a sharp swing to the
Liberals at the 2013 election and now seems secure in the seat. She was a social worker and public servant before
entering politics. She was a shadow parliamentary secretary from 2004 and a minister through the Rudd-Gillard Government, ending as Regional Services, Local Communities and Territories. She is now Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government. The Liberal
candidate is Wes McKnight.
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