Coogee
Margin: Liberal 8.3%
Region: Eastern Sydney
Federal: Kingsford-Smith (52%)/Wentworth (48%)
Candidates in ballot paper order
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PAUL PEARCE VICTORIA GERVAY-RUBEN LINDA DINKHA LINDSAY SHUREY BRUCE NOTLEY-SMITH |
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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Won by the Liberals at the 2011 election for the first time since 1973, Coogee is one of three electorates that cover the Sydney coast between Port Jackson and Botany Bay, along with Vaucluse to the north and Maroubra to the south. The redistribution has added coastal territory at the southern end, accounting for around 4500 voters in South Coogee and southern Randwick, and detached the area around Randwick Racecourse in the west, sending 3500 voters to Heffron, with little effect on the margin.
Coogee was a keenly fought marginal seat before Labor established its dominance from the 1970s, having been held for the Liberals by Kevin Ellis from 1948 to 1953, 1956 to 1962 and 1965 to 1973, with Labor’s Louis Walsh holding it in the intervening periods. Ellis’s successor Ross Freeman won by just eight votes in 1973, a result Labor successfully challenged in the Court of Disputed Returns. The ensuing by-election produced a 54-vote victory for Labor’s Mike Cleary, commencing Labor’s 38-year winning run.
Labor’s member from 2003 to 2011 was Paul Pearce, a Left faction member who remained on the back bench during his two terms in parliament. His successful Liberal opponent in 2011 was Bruce Notley-Smith, formerly a Randwick councillor and staffer to Malcolm Turnbull. Pearce will again take the field in a bid to recover his old seat for Labor.