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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Cowan, Western Australia
Named for: Edith Cowan (1861-1932), WA MP 1921-24 (first woman MP in Australia)
Northern Perth: Ballajura, Balcatta, Girrawheen, Lansdale, Mirrabooka
Enrolment at 2022 election: 98,668
Enrolment at 2022 election: 122,611 (+23.4)
1999 republic referendum: No 57.1
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 58.8
2023 Voice referendum: No 62.5
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Sitting member: Dr Hon Anne Aly (Labor): Elected 2016, 2019, 2022
Minister for Early Childhood Education
Minister for Youth
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2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 1.7%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 6.3%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 7.5%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 0.7%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 0.9%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 10.8%
2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 9.7%
Status 2022: Fairly safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 1984-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Division of Cowan
Cowan was created in 1984, occupying a block of Perth's rapidly expanding northern suburbs. It is a typical
mortgage belt seat, with among the highest proportion of dwellings being purchased of any electorate,
and a high proportion of families with dependent children. Like all the Perth seats, it also has a large
number of immigrants from the UK, and also a fairly large number from non English speaking countries.
Graham Edwards, a former WA state
minister who lost both legs in the Vietnam War, won Cowan in 1998, and held it largely on his personal status.
When he retired in 2007 the Liberal Luke Simpkins, an
Australian Army officer for 14 years, and later a secrity consultant and a ministerial adviser, won the seat,
despite the swing to Labor elsewhere. He increased the Liberal majority in both 2010 and 2013.
The 2016 redistribution removed a block of Liberal suburbs around Kingsley and Woodvale, and replaced
it with solid Labor territory at Beechboro and Kiara, formerly in the seat of Perth. The result was to
reduce the Liberal margin from 7.5% to 4.5%. This was, enough, combined with the swing against the Liberals across
WA at the 2016 election, to enable Labor to eke out a narrow win.
Dr Anne Aly, Labor MP for Cowan since 2016, was born in Egypt and came to Australia as a child. She has a
PhD in politics from Edith Cowan University and was a Professorial Research fellow there before her election. She
is an expert on Islamic extremism and was prominent in media debate. In 2016 she was awarded an Australian Security
Medal for her work against terrorism. She is the first Muslim woman elected to the Australian Parliament.
The 2021 redistribution moved Cowan to the west, removing the northern areas around Wanneroo and adding a block of
terrirory from the abolished seat of Stirling,
including Balcatta and Mirrabooka. At the 2022 election she faced Vince Connelly,
the Liberal member for Stirling, but was easily re-elected. The 2022 election saw large swings to Labor in all the Western
Australian seats. This was largely due to state issues, particularly arising from the COVID pandemic. This means that the Labor
majority in Cowan is probably over-stated.
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