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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Cook, New South Wales
Named for: Captain James Cook (1728-79), first European to see the east coast of Australia (1770)
Southern Sydney: Caringbah, Cronulla, Miranda, Sans Souci, Sylvania
Enrolment at 2019 election: 107,052
Enrolment at 2022 election: 110,221 (+03.1)
1999 republic referendum: No 52.9
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 55.0
2023 Voice referendum: No 63.3
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Sitting member: Simon Kennedy (Liberal): Elected 2024 by-election
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2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 6.6%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 12.7%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 16.4%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 15.4%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 19.0%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 12.4%
2024 by-election Liberal majority over Greens 21.2%
2025 notional Liberal majority over Labor: 11.7%
Status 2022: Safe Liberal
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
2024 by-election results
Statistics and history
Division of Cook
Cook was created in 1969, based in the southern suburbs of Sydney between Botany Bay and the Georges River (there
was an earlier seat of Cook in inner Sydney, which was abolished in 1955). Centred on Cronulla and Miranda, it is a
solidly middle-class area with a high proportion of people in professional occupations. In the 1970s these were
fairly new suburbs with a high level of families with children and people paying mortgages. Today the population is
mainly older home-owners, with a low proportion of people born in non English speaking countries. Cook was politically
marginal when it was created, and Labor won it in 1972 and 1974, but it grew steadily safer for the Liberals in the
1980s and '90s.
The 2016 redistribution extended Cook north of the Georges River for the first time, taking in Blakehurst,
Ramsgate and Sans Souci. This somewhat reduced the Liberal majority, but not enough to pose any threat to the Liberal Party's
hold on the seat. The 2024 redistribution has partly reversed this change, while only slightly changing the seat's political character.
Bruce Baird, a former NSW Liberal state minister, won Cook in 1998. Baird expected to be a minister when he came to
Canberra, but was disappointed, and joined
Petro Georgiou in becoming a back-bench rebel, especially on immigration
issues. He retired in 2007.
He was succeeded by Scott Morrison (photo), former state director of the NSW Liberal Party and managing director of
Tourism Australia. He was on the opposition front bench from 2008, and became Immigration Minister in the Abbott Government in 2013.
In this position he was in charge of "Operation Sovereign Borders", which effectively stopped the influx of unauthorised boat arrivals from Indonesia. This made him one of the successes of the otherwise chaotic Abbott government. He was
initially a strong supporter of
Tony Abbott, but abandoned him in 2015, and when
Malcolm Turnbull deposed Abbott in September 2015
he became Treasurer in the Turnbull Government. In August 2018, when crisis engulfed the Turnbull government, Morrison at first strongly endorsed
Turnbull against the challenge from the right's candidate,
Peter Dutton. But when it became clear that Turnbull could not survive, he
declared his own candidacy, and easily defeated Dutton to become Liberal leader and Prime Minister.
Morrison was widely expected to lose the 2019 election, but pulled off a surprise victory, mainly by exploiting opposition to Labor's taxation policies.
His luck then deserted him: his popularity and poll numbers crashed as a result of his poor response to the 2020-21 bushfires and the COVID pandemic. At the
May 2022 election he was heavily defeated. He resigned from Parliament in February 2024
Simon Kennnedy, Liberal MP for Cook since 2022, was a lawyer and management consultant before his election. He unsuccessfully contested
Bennelong at the 2022 election.
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