Thomastown
Margin: Labor 21.6%
Region: Northern Metropolitan
Federal: Scullin (91%)/Batman (9%)
Candidates in ballot paper order
|
THOMAS Di PALMA BRONWYN HALFPENNY TRENT SCHNEIDER-JOHNSON IAN WILLIAMSON NITIN GURSAHANI |
2010 BOOTH RESULTS MAP |
PAST RESULTS |
DEMOGRAPHICS |
|
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.
|
Thomastown covers strongly Labor-voting suburbs at the northern edge of Melbourne, including Thomastown and a part of Reservoir at the southern end, Lalor and western Epping in the centre, and semi-rural Wollert in the north. It can lay claim to being the state’s most ethnically diverse electorate, being home to substantial Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese and Turkish communities, with 69% of its respondents to the 2012 census nominating a language other than English as most frequently spoken in the home. The redistribution has shifted the electorate northwards, adding Wollert and the bulk of rapidly growing Epping from Yan Yean, accounting for 4400 voters. In the south, 7700 voters in Fawkner have been transferred to Broadmeadows, while 3300 in Reservoir go to Preston. The changes have increased Labor’s already ample margin by 1.4%.
The electorate was created in 1985 and won for Labor at its first two elections by Beth Gleeson, who died of breast cancer in 1989. The next member was Peter Batchelor, who held off a 14% swing at the 1990 by-election to replace Gleeson, and subsequently built one of the biggest margins in the state. Batchelor served in the Bracks and Brumby governments first as Transport Minister and later as Energy and Resources Minister, before bowing out at the 2010 election.
Thomastown has since been held for Labor by Bronwyn Halfpenny, a Trades Hall official and daughter of union legend John Halfpenny. Halfpenny shares her predecessor’s background in the Socialist Left faction, having earlier been an official with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.