New South Wales election 2015

Baulkham Hills

Margin: Liberal 28.3%
Region: Western Sydney
Federal: Mitchell (76%)/Berowra (18%)/Parramatta (6%)

Candidates in ballot paper order

baulkhamhills-lib

baulkhamhills-alp

DAVID ELLIOTT
Liberal (top)

KAIA THORPE
Christian Democratic Party

NEIL HOLDEN
No Land Tax

ALICE SUTTIE
Greens

RYAN TRACEY
Labor (bottom)

2011 BOOTH RESULTS MAP

PAST RESULTS

DEMOGRAPHICS

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.

Baulkham Hills covers Liberal-voting territory about 25 kilometres north-west of central Sydney, including Baulkham Hills itself, Bella Vista and Kellyville to the north, and North Rocks together with parts of West Pennant Hills, Castle Hill and Carlingford in the east. The redistribution pushes the electorate eastwards into territory formerly covered by Castle Hill, which is reoriented northwards. This area encompasses 18,000 voters in West Pennant Hills and northern Carlingford. The gain is counterbalanced by the transfer of 16,000 voters in Winston Hills and Northmead at the southern end of the electorate to Toongabbie, which changes its name to Seven Hills and becomes much stronger for the Liberals.

The electorate was created in 1991 and held for two decades by Wayne Merton, whose retirement in 2011 ignited a factional turf war that had been germinating as forces from the rival right factions associated with Alex Hawke and David Clarke jockeyed to have their favoured candidates succeed him. The Hawke camp threw its weight behind David Elliott, chief executive of the Civil Contractors Federation, who had recently failed to depose Clarke from his upper house preselection. Other contenders included two associates of the Clarke camp, NSW Family Association spokesman Damien Tudehope and The Hills Shire councillor Mike Thomas, but Tudehope ultimately withdrew and threw his weight behind Thomas, after unsuccessfully seeking a Supreme Court injunction to prevent the vote from proceeding. Elliott ended up prevailing by 50 votes to 33, assisted in no small part by the endorsement of John Howard.

In the reshuffle that followed Mike Baird’s assumption of the premiership in April 2014, Elliott attained the position of parliamentary secretary to the Premier for Youth, Homelessness and the Centenary of ANZAC.

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