Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Banks, New South Wales

Named for: Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), naturalist who accompanied Cook on The Endeavour


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South-western Sydney: Allawah, Lugano, Padstow, Panania, Peakhurst

Enrolment at 2019 election: 106,253
Enrolment at 2022 election: 107,700 (+01.5)
1999 republic referendum: No 52.4
2018 same-sex marriage survey: No 55.1
2023 Voice referendum: No 61.0


Sitting member: Hon David Coleman (Liberal): Elected 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022


2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.1%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 2.5%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 1.8%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 1.4%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 6.3%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 3.2%
2025 notional Liberal majority over Labor: 2.6%

Status: Marginal Liberal

  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Hon David Coleman
    Liberal Party

    Division of Banks

    Banks was created in 1949, and its boundaries and social composition have changed very little since. It has always taken in a block of Sydney's south-western suburbs, areas which now have a stable, home-owning and ageing population, with a relatively high proportion of non-English speaking households (particularly Chinese). The 2024 redistribution has extended Banks to the north, taking in parts of Bankstown and Milperra, and reducing the Liberal majority. But the increasing influx of high-income voters into the suburbs along the Georges River, demographics are working against Labor in this part of Sydney

    Until 2013 Banks was always held by Labor, although the Liberals came close to winning it several times. Daryl Melham held the seat for Labor from 1990 to 2103. Melham was an outspoken left-winger who twice resigned from the Labor front-bench in opposition but was never promoted while Labor was in office. He was an increasingly poor fit for a seat rapidly filling with "aspirational" voters.

    David Coleman, Liberal MHR for Banks since 2013, is a lawyer and company director, and previously held senior positions at PBL Media and the Nine Network. He is a relative moderate in the NSW Liberal Party - he supported marriage equality, for example. He was appointed an assistant minister in December 2017 and in 2018 became Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs. But in the December 2020 reshuffle he was demoted to Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister for Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. He is now Shadow Minister for Communications.

    At the 2019 election the Liberal margin in Banks blew out to 6.3%, which was cut back to 3.2% in 2022, and has been further reduced by the redistribution. While it is still a marginal seat, it is unlikely that Labor can regain it unless there is a very big swing across Sydney.

    Boundaries following most recent redistribution:



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