Wallsend
Margin: Labor 6.3%
Region: Hunter Region
Federal: Charlton (53%)/Newcastle (47%)
Candidates in ballot paper order
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DAMIEN COTTON TONY DI COSMO SONIA HORNERY ALEONA SWEGEN HANNAH EVES |
2011 BOOTH RESULTS MAP |
PAST RESULTS |
DEMOGRAPHICS |
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Two-party preferred booth results from 2011 state election showing Nationals majority in green 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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The only seat in the traditional Labor stronghold of Newcastle that the party was able to retain in 2011, Wallsend encompasses the city’s northern suburbs, from Waratah and western New Lambton in the east to Wallsend and Glendale in the west. It has undergone a number of adjustments in the redistribution, gaining 4250 voters around Beresfield from Cessnock in the north plus 4000 in Waratah from Newcastle in the east, while losing 2600 around northern Katara to Charlestown in the south and 1000 in Argenton to Lake Macquarie in the south-west. The changes take a modest 0.3% bite out of a 6.6% Labor margin from 2011.
Wallsend has had a remarkable record as a Labor redoubt, being held by the party at all times in an existence going back to 1894. The only interruption came when the electorate was abolished during the proportional representation years from 1920 and 1927, followed by its replacement until 1968 by Kurri Kurri, also a safe Labor seat. John Mills held the seat from 1988 until his retirement in 2007, at which time he bequeathed a 20.7% margin to his Labor successor, Newcastle councillor Sonia Hornery. The margin was pared back by a 4.0% swing at the 2007 election, followed by a relatively modest 9.2% swing in 2011.
Sonia Hornery attained parliamentary secretary status in September 2008, but was dropped in December 2009 for publicly opposing the privatisation of an aged care facility in her electorate, having also campaigned within the party against the leadership of Nathan Rees. She finally returned to the front bench in December 2013 when she took on the shadow portfolio of science and medical research, and further gained arts the following March.
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