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 |  |  Adam Carr's Election Archive
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 Australian federal election, 2025Division of Barton, New South Wales
 
 Named for: Rt Hon Sir Edmund Barton (1849-1920), NSW MP 1879-94, 
1897-1900, federal MP 1901-03, Prime Minister 1901-03 (first Prime 
Minister)
 
 Southern Sydney: Bexley, Carlton, Earlwood, Hurstville, Rockdale
 Enrolment at 2019 election: 108,992
 Enrolment at 2022 election: 110,371 (+01.4)
 1999 republic referendum: Yes 51.8
 2018 same-sex marriage survey: No 56.4
 2023 Voice referendum: No 55.0
 
|  | Sitting member: Hon Linda Burney (Labor): 
Elected 2016, 2019, 2022. Retiring 2025 |  
 
2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 12.1%2022 results 
Statistics and history2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 6.9%
 2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.3%
 2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.3%
 2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 9.4%
 2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 15.5%
 2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 12.0%
 
 
 Status: Fairly safe Labor
 Announced candidates:
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| Ashvini AmbihaipaharAust Labor Party
 | Manal BahsaAust Greens
 | Fiona DouskouLiberal Party
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 Division of Barton
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Barton was created in 1922 in the southern suburbs of Sydney, and has been a very stable seat in terms of both 
its borders and its social composition. It is relatively wealthy for a Labor-held seat, with a high 
proportion of home-owners and university graduates. Its increasing strength for Labor is explained by its high proportion of 
 people born in non English speaking countries: Barton is one of the most multi-cultural seats in Australia, with over 
60% of households speaking a non-English language. 
 The expansion of the seat to the north by recent redistributions 
has strengthened Labor's position. The 2016 redistribution made these characteristics even stronger by 
removing the more affluent suburbs along the Georges River and pushing the seat into strong Labor areas. The 2024 redistribution has 
partly reversed this, by removing Marrickville and adding most of Korarah in the south. This has reduced the Labor majority.
 
 Barton has usually been held by Labor, its most prominent member being Dr 
H.V. Evatt, External Affairs Minister 
under Curtin and Chifley and later Opposition Leader. 
Robert McClelland, son of Whitlam government minister 
Senator Douglas McClelland, won the seat in 1996. McClelland was a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments, 
before retiring in 2013, when the seat fell to the Liberals for the first time since 1977. 
Nickolas Varvaris held 
the seat for one term until he was defeated by a combination of the 2016 redistribution and the swing to 
Labor at that election.
 
 Linda Burney, Labor MP for Barton since 2016, was a teacher and public servant before entering politics. She was 
Director General of the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs 2000-03. She was then MLA for Canterbury in the NSW 
Parliament 2003-16, and was a minister in the last NSW Labor government 2007-11. She is the first Indigenous 
woman to sit in the House of Representatives, and was Minister for Indigenous Australians 2022-24. She will retire in 2025. The new Labor candidate is Ashvini Ambihaipahar, a lawyer, Regional Director for the St Vincent de Paul Society NSW and a member of Georges River Council. The Liberal candidate is Fiona Douskou, a cybersecurity consultant and Bayside City councillor.
 
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