Williamstown
Margin: Labor 13.2%
Region: Western Metropolitan
Federal: Gellibrand
Candidates in ballot paper order
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LIBBY KREPP ALAN SHEA WADE NOONAN SIMON CRAWFORD KHALIL WEHBE |
2010 BOOTH RESULTS MAP |
PAST RESULTS |
DEMOGRAPHICS |
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RESULTS MAP: Two-party preferred booth results from 2010 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.
PAST RESULTS: Break at 1999 represents effect of the subsequent redistribution.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Based on 2012 census. School Leavers is percentage of high school graduates divided by persons over 18. LOTE is number identified as speaking language other than English at home, divided by total population.
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The electorate of Williamstown covers the area immediately west of the mouth of the Yarra River, from Williamstown itself to Brooklyn and Yarraville north of the West Gate Freeway. The redistribution has added 1.4% to the Labor margin by extending the electorate northwards into Kingsville, Seddon and part of Yarraville, adding 7000 voters who were formerly in Footscray, and transferring Seaholme and its 1500 voters to the electorate’s western neighbour, Altona. Together with Richmond and Brighton, Williamstown is one of only three electorates that can trace an unbroken history going back to the establishment of the Legislative Assembly in 1856. Labor first won the seat in 1891, and has held it without interruption since 1904. It recently provided a home to successive Labor premiers in Joan Kirner, who moved to the seat in 1988 after two terms in the upper house, and Steve Bracks, who succeeded her at a by-election in 1994.
Wade Noonan came to the seat following Bracks’ resignation in July 2007, having previously been an official with the Right faction Transport Workers Union. His preselection followed a botched bid to recruit ABC television sports presenter Angela Pippos, amid concern that both Williamstown and Albert Park, which had been simultaneously vacated by Deputy Premier John Thwaites, stood to go to male union officials. In an early embarrassment for new Premier John Brumby, Pippos opted not to proceed after the story was leaked. Noonan went untroubled at the by-election held the following September, securing a 14.1% margin over future Greens Senator Janet Rice in the absence of a Liberal candidate.
Noonan won promotion to parliamentary secretary in February 2012, then to Shadow Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Bushfire Response in December 2013. He had narrowly failed to win a ministerial berth after the resignation of Tim Holding the previous February, losing out on a position designated to the Right after Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy intervened on behalf of their preferred candidate, Keilor MP Natalie Hutchins.