Division of Durack
The Division of Durack is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Western Australia.
Durack Australian House of Representatives Division | |
---|---|
Division of Durack in Western Australia, as of the 2016 federal election. | |
Created | 2010 |
MP | Melissa Price |
Party | Liberal |
Namesake | Durack family of Western Australia |
Electors | 97,068 (2019) |
Area | 1,629,858 km2 (629,291.7 sq mi) |
Demographic | Rural |
History
The Division is named after the pioneering Durack family, upon whom Dame Mary Durack based her popular historical novels. Created to replace parts of the divisions of Kalgoorlie (which has been abolished) and O'Connor, it elected its first member at the 2010 election.[1] It was created as a comfortably safe Liberal seat. Sitting Kalgoorlie MP Barry Haase contested the seat for the Liberals and won.[2] Haase announced he would not recontest Durack at the next election on 15 June 2013.[3] The seat was won at the 2013 election by Liberal candidate Melissa Price.
Geography
Durack includes the northern parts of Western Australia, including the northern and central parts of the Wheatbelt, the Mid West, Gascoyne, Pilbara and the Kimberley regions. Populated areas include the city of Geraldton, Broome, Carnarvon, Derby, Dongara, Kalbarri, Karratha, Kununurra, Meekatharra, Merredin, Moora, Mukinbudin, Narembeen, Newman, Port Hedland and Tom Price.
At 1,629,858 km² (64 per cent of the landmass of Western Australia), Durack is the largest electorate in Australia by land area, the largest constituency in the world that practices compulsory voting, and the third largest single-member electorate in the world after Nunavut in Canada and Alaska in the United States.[4] Although physically similar in size to Mexico, the electorate has only 300 settlements.[5]
Members
Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Barry Haase (1945–) |
Liberal | 21 August 2010 – 5 August 2013 |
Previously held the Division of Kalgoorlie. Retired | ||
Melissa Price (1963–) |
Liberal | 7 September 2013 – present |
Incumbent. Currently the Defence Industry Minister under Morrison |
Election results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Melissa Price | 34,429 | 44.30 | +2.56 | |
Labor | Sharyn Morrow | 16,742 | 21.54 | −4.36 | |
National | Scott Bourne | 7,878 | 10.14 | −5.84 | |
One Nation | Grahame Gould | 7,407 | 9.53 | +9.53 | |
Greens | Johani Mamid | 6,287 | 8.09 | −1.96 | |
Western Australia | Gary Mounsey | 2,895 | 3.72 | +3.72 | |
United Australia | Brenden Hatton | 2,083 | 2.68 | +2.68 | |
Total formal votes | 77,721 | 95.23 | −0.86 | ||
Informal votes | 3,892 | 4.77 | +0.86 | ||
Turnout | 81,613 | 84.08 | +2.05 | ||
Two-party-preferred result | |||||
Liberal | Melissa Price | 50,332 | 64.76 | +3.70 | |
Labor | Sharyn Morrow | 27,389 | 35.24 | −3.70 | |
Liberal hold | Swing | +3.70 |
See also
- Electoral district of North West Central for the Western Australian Legislative Assembly, the largest electoral division by area in Western Australia
References
- 26. "Western Australia (2007–08)". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 11 April 2018.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
- "Haase 'committed' to Goldfields". abc.net.au. 27 July 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- "It's game on in Australia's biggest federal electorate". www.abc.net.au. 19 July 2013. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
- Durack: the electorate bigger than many countries still finds it hard to get noticed, The Guardian, 14 May 2016
- Taylor, Rob (26 June 2016). "In Australia, This Political Race Covers a Lot of Ground". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 29 June 2016.
- Durack, WA, Tally Room 2019, Australian Electoral Commission.