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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of O'Connor, Western Australia
Named for: C Y (Charles) O'Connor (1843-1902), civil engineer who built the water pipeline to the WA goldfields.
Southern Western Australia: Albany, Kalgoorlie, Katanning, Narrogin, Wagin
Enrolment at 2019 election: 101,904
Enrolment at 2022 election: 117,798 (+15.8)
1999 republic referendum: No 71.9
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 56.2
2023 Voice referendum: No 75.5
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Sitting member: Rick Wilson (Liberal): Elected 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022
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2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 16.6%
2010 Nationals majority over Liberal: 3.6%
2013 Liberal majority over Nationals: 1.0%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 15.1%
2019 Liberal majority over Labor: 14.5%
2022 Liberal majority over Labor: 7.0%
2025 notional Liberal majority over Labor: 6.7%
Status: Marginal Liberal
Liberal two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Announced candidates:
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Rick Wilson
Liberal Party |
Division of O'Connor
O'Connor was created in 1980, uniting the western, rural halves of the old seats of
Canning and
Moore. It then
covered the whole of the Wheat Belt of WA, one of the world's great wheat-producing regions. It was the most rural
electorate in Australia, with the highest proportion of its workforce engaged in agriculture of any seat. Like all
rural seats, it had and still has a relatively low median family income level, but also has a surprisingly high level
of people in professional occupations.
The 2010 redistribution, however, again cut the Wheat Belt in half, with the northern half going into the new seat of
Durack and the southern
half being united with the city of Kalgoorlie and the southern part of outback WA to form
O'Connor. Kalgoorlie was once a Labor stronghold, but in recent years the Labor vote has declined sharply. On the current
boundaries 17.8% of the workforce is employed in agriculture.
Until 2010, O'Connor had always been an extremely safe seat for its first and only member, the very conservative and
eccentric Liberal
Wilson Tuckey. During the Liberals' time in opposition from
1983 to 1996 Tuckey was an effective "head-kicker." In government he was forced to resign from the Howard ministry when he
foolishly wrote to a (Labor) state minister asking that his son be excused a traffic fine. By 2010, when Tuckey was 75,
voters had apparently tired of him, and he was defeated by a Nationals candidate,
Tony Crook. Crook didn't like being a federal MP and
retired after one term, whereupon the seat returned to the Liberals.
Rick Wilson, Liberal MP for O'Connor since
2013, was a farmer at Katanning before entering politics. Labor is no
longer a threat in Kalgoorlie, and the danger from the Nationals has receded - in 2016 they polled only 18.4% - so
Wilson now seems fairly secure in this seat.
The 2021 redistribution shifted a block of rural shires, including Merredin and Mount Marshall, from Durack to
O'Connor, making the seat even more agricultural than before. This has mde no difference to its political orientation,
although it might favour a Nationals candidate in future. The 2022 election cut his majority sharply, but the large swings to Labor
in WA in 2022 were largely due to state issues, particularly arising from the COVID pandemic. This means that the Liberal majority in O'Connor is probably under-stated.
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