Bega
Margin: Liberal 18.5%
Region: South Coast
Federal: Eden-Monaro
Candidates in ballot paper order
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CLYDE ARCHARD MARGARET PERGER LEANNE ATKINSON URSULA BENNETT ANDREW CONSTANCE |
2011 BOOTH RESULTS MAP |
PAST RESULTS |
DEMOGRAPHICS |
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Two-party preferred booth results from 2011 state election showing Liberal majority in blue and Labor in red. New boundaries in thicker blue lines, old ones in thinner red lines. Boundary data courtesy of Ben Raue of The Tally Room.
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Treasurer Andrew Constance’s seat of Bega is located in the south-eastern corner of the state, covering a 200 kilometre stretch of coastline that ends at the Victorian border. It extends inland only as far as the Great Dividing Range, the major population centres being Bega, Batemans Bay and Eden. The latest redistribution has effected only minor change. The Liberals have held the seat since it was created in 1988, their narrowest victory being a 3.9% margin in 2003. After a very slight swing to the Liberals in 2007, the seat was bolted down by a 13.6% swing in 2011.
Constance came to the seat in 2003 at the age of 28, when he succeeded the seat’s inaugural member, Russell Smith. A former Young Liberals president and public relations consultant, Constance was rated by some local critics as a “blow-in” from Sydney, prompting an independent challenge from Eurobodalla shire president Chris Vardon. However, he retained the seat and subsequently enjoyed a swift rise to the front bench, holding the disability services and ageing portfolios first in opposition from November 2006.
Constance’s rise has continued in government, to the extent of securing him the position of Treasurer in place of Mike Baird when he became Premier in April 2014. This was his second promotion since the election, the first being when he replaced upper house MP Greg Pearce as Finance and Services Minister after he resigned for failing to disclose a conflict of interest while making an appointment to the board of Sydney Water.