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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Victorian state election, 2018
Ripon District
Central Victoria: Ararat, Avoca, Creswick, Maryborough, Stawell
Federal seats: Parts of Ballarat,
Mallee,
Wannon
Legislative Council: Western Victoria Region
Local government areas: All of Central Goldfields and Pyrenees, parts of Ararat, Ballarat, Buloke, Hepburn,
Loddon and Northern Goldfields
Enrolment 2014 election: 45,147
Enrolment 2018 election: 47,774 (up 5.8%)
Sitting member:
Louise Staley (Liberal): Elected 2014
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 2.7
2014 Liberal majority over Labor: 0.7
Status: Very marginal Liberal
2014 results
Candidates
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Sarah DeSantis
Australian Labor Party |
Serge Simic
Australian Greens |
Louise Staley
Liberal Party |
Sandra Gibbs (Derryn Hinch's Justice Party)
Jeff Troscott (Independent)
Bronwyn Jennings (Victorian Socialists)
Anna Hills (Animal Justice Party)
Peter Mulcahy (Democratic Labour Party)
Louise Staley (Liberal Party)
Sarah DeSantis (Australian Labor Party)
Peter Fava (Shooters, Fishers and Farmers)
Serge Simic (Australian Greens)
Maria Meyer (Independent)
Ripon District
Ripon was created in 1945, abolished in 1955, and recreated in 1976, when the old seats of Hampden (Henry Bolte's seat)
and Kara Kara were merged. It has always been based on the central Victorian goldfields towns of Ararat, Stawall and
Maryborough. These towns, after a decades-long decline in population and prosperity, are growing again as a result
of increasing tourism and colonisation by ex-urbanites. Labor's strength is in the larger towns, particularly
Maryborough, which has always been a Labor stroghold. The smaller rural towns mostly vote Liberal.
Ripon was held from 1976 to 1992 by senior Liberal Tom Austin (who had succeeded Bolte in Hampden in 1972).
On his retirement the seat was won by Stephen Elder, who was Bolte's great-nephew, and who had held the abolished
seat of Ballarat North since 1988. Elder was expected to go far, but he was unexpectedly defeated in Labor's
sweep of the central Victorian seats in 1999.
The winner was Joe Helper, who retained the seat at the next three
elections and was a minister in the Bracks and Brumby governments. Helper retired in 2014, when the
redistricting turned Ripon into a notionally Liberal seat. But even with the loss of Helper's personal vote, Labor
nearly retained the seat, and is now the Liberal Party's most marginal seat.
Louise Staley, Liberal MLA for Ripon since 2014, was a company dirtector and farmer before her election. She was
also director of the Food and Environment Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs, a right-wing thank-tank. The
Labor candidate is Sarah DeSantis, a staffer for fedeal MP Catherine King. The Greens candidate is Serge Simic,
an organic farmer. Other candidates running are Anna Hills (Animal Justice Party, Peter Mulcahy (Democratic
Labour Party) and Bronwyn Jennings (Socialist)
Boundaries following 2014 redistricting:
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