New South Wales election 2015

Granville

Margin: Liberal 3.8%
Region: Western Sydney
Federal: Parramatta (68%)/Blaxland (17%)/McMahon (15%)

Candidates in ballot paper order

granville-lib

granville-alp

JAMES ATANASIOUS
Greens

MARIO MARRA
No Land Tax

JULIA FINN
Labor (bottom)

TONY ISSA
Liberal (top)

LARA TAOUK SLIEMAN
Christian Democratic Party

STEVEN LOPEZ
Independent

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.

Granville is located around 20 kilometres to the west of central Sydney, and emerged from the 2011 election in conservative hands for the first time since 1938. The suburb of Granville sits at the eastern end of the electorate, which extends westwards through Merrylands to eastern Greystanes. The redistribution has made a number of adjustments that have collectively been to the advantage of the Liberal Party, adding 1.1% to the margin. The largest of these is the transfer of the old electorate’s south-eastern corner to Auburn, accounting for more than 8000 voters in South Granville and eastern Guildford. Another part of Guildford further west is gained from Fairfield, adding around 3500 voters. The northern boundary with Parramatta is redrawn to add nearly 7000 voters in the southern parts of Westmead and Wentworthville, while removing 4500 between Great Western Highway and the Western Motorway further to the east.

Granville has existed as an electorate since 1894, the only interruption being during the period of proportional representation from 1920 to 1927. It was first won for Labor in 1913 by Jack Lang, who carried over to the multi-member Parramatta district from 1920 to 1927, and emerged in the new seat of Auburn when single-member electorates were reinstated. Granville fell to the United Australia Party in the 1932 landslide that follows Lang’s dismissal as Premier and remained in the party fold in 1935, before Bill Lamb recovered it for Labor in 1938. Prior to 2011, the only subsequent interruption to Labor control have been when Lamb joined Lang’s breakaway Australian Labor Party (Non-Communist) in 1940, which reconciled with the official ALP when John Curtin became Prime Minister in October 1941.

Left faction powerbroker Laurie Ferguson held Granville for Labor from 1984 to 1990, when he entered federal parliament as the member for Reid and later Werriwa. The seat was then held until 2007 by Kim Yeadon, and then for a term by David Borger, who had been Lord Mayor of Parramatta since 1999 and ran unsuccessfully in the federal seat of Parramatta in 2001. Borger served as Housing Minister under Nathan Rees and further acquired the transport and roads portfolio when Kristina Keneally took over in December 2009, but his parliamentary tenure was brought unstuck by the 2011 landslide, when his 11.1% margin was overpowered by a swing of 13.8%.

Granville has since been held for the Liberals by Tony Issa, former Parramatta mayor and construction business director. His Labor opponent at the coming election will be Parramatta councillor Julia Finn, who won a rank-and-file ballot with 104 votes ahead of 35 for Holyroyd councillor Greg Cummings, reportedly with backing from Laurie Ferguson.

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