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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Eden-Monaro, New South Wales
Named for: Town of Eden (after George Eden, Earl of Auckland (1784-
1849), British minister), and Monaro region (The town of Eden was established in 1842 and named by Thomas Townsend, the NSW Government Surveyor. The Monaro district (pronouned Mon-AIR-o, not Mon-AR-o) was settled in the 1820s, and was originally spelled Moneroo, Manaro or Maneroo. There was a NSW
electoral district of Maneroo from 1851. It is said to be an Indigenous word meaning "breast-shaped hills", although this is also said
to be the meaning of the name Canberra. A local grazier wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1858 that the word meant "big plains.")
Southern New South Wales: Bega, Cooma, Eden, Goulburn, Queanbeyan
Enrolment at 2019 election: 114,178
Enrolment at 2022 election: 116,338 (+02.0)
1999 republic referendum: No 53.9
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 64.9
2023 Voice referendum: No 60.2
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Sitting member: Hon Kristy McBain (Labor): Elected 2020 by-election, 2022
Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories
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2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 3.4%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.2%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.6%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 2.9%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 0.8%
2020 by-election Labor majority over Liberal: 0.4%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.1%
2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 6.1%
Status 2022: Safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Announced candidates:
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Hon Kristy McBain
Australian Labor Party |
Jo van der Plaat
Liberal Party |
Division of Eden-Monaro
Eden-Monaro has existed since Federation, and has always occupied the south-eastern corner of NSW. For most of its
history it was a seat based on farming, fishing and timber, but the growth of the Canberra dormitory town of Queanbeyan
means that today the largest employment sector is government employment (20.3%), including a substantial Defence vote,
while only 6.3% of the population work in agriculture - fewer than the 10% who work in tourism. Nevertheless the
electorate is still sensitive to rural issues. The 2004 redistribution has removed Tumut and Yass while adding Goulburn.
Eden-Monaro was usually a safe conservative seat until 1943, when it was won for Labor by
Allan Fraser, who held it until
his defeat in 1966, and again from 1969 to 1972. Labor held the seat again from 1983 to 1996: this is one of the few country
seats where Labor's base vote has held up.
Gary Nairn won the seat for the Liberals in 1996, and was
a minister in the Howard government. He was defeated in 2007 by
Dr Mike Kelly, a former Australian Army officer and lawyer
with a distinguished record. Kelly was a minister in the Rudd-Gillard government, but was defeated in 2013 by
Dr Peter Hendy, Chief Executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. In 2015 Hendy was one of the organisers of
Malcolm Turnbull's party-room coup against
Tony Abbott, and was subsequently appointed Assistant Minister for Productivity
and later Assistant Minister for Finance. In 2016 Kelly won a return bout against Hendy, despite a redistribution which
favoured the Liberals. Kelly was a shadow minister after the 2016 defeat, but in 2020 he was forced by ill-health to resign.
Kristy McBain, Labor MP since the 2020 by-election which followed Kelly's resignation, ran a plumbing business with her husband
before her election to Bega Valley Council in 2012. She became Mayor in 2016 and was in office when the area was devastated by
bushfires in the summer of 2019-20. She won the by-election with a majority of only 0.4%, but gained a big swing in 2022.
She is now Minister for Regional Development, Local Government and Territories. The Liberal candidate is Jo van der Plaat, a Cooma farmer and lawyer.
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