Kimberley

Margin: Labor 5.1%
Region: Mining and Pastoral
Federal: Durack

RESULTS AT 2013 ELECTION
HISTORICAL TWO-PARTY RESULTS
PREVIOUS ELECTION RESULTS MAP

Candidates in ballot paper order

KAI JONES Independent GRAHAM CHAPMAN Independent RYAN ALBREY Flux the System LIZ VAUGHAN Greens (bottom) KEITH DAVID WRIGHT One Nation WARREN GREATOREX Liberal (centre) JOSIE FARRER Labor (top) ROB HOUSTON Nationals

The Kimberley region encompasses the northernmost part of Western Australia, including the tourism centre of Broome at the western end, the smaller centres of Derby, Kununurra and Wyndham further to the east, and the communities that give it the highest indigenous population of any electorate in the state. The seat has had indigenous representation since 1980, and has been held since 2013 by Josie Farrer, a former Halls Creek shire president and deputy chair of the Kimberley Development Commission.

Kimberley has existed as a single electorate without interruption since Kimberley East and Kimberley West were merged in 1904, at which time the region had only a few dozen (white) voters. Labor held the seat from 1924 until 1968, when misplaced enthusiasm for the Brand government's pursuit of the Ord River project helped Keith Ridge win it for the Liberals. Ernie Bridge became the first indigenous person elected to state parliament when he recovered the seat for Labor in 1980, and he was followed by the first indigenous woman ever elected to an Australian parliament, Carol Martin, in 2001. Bridge quit Labor to sit as an independent in mid-1996, and was comfortably re-elected when Labor declined to field a candidate against him at the election the following December.

Owing to the “large district allowance”, which reduces the number of voters required of especially large electorates, Kimberley had 16,204 enrolled voters at the end of 2012 compared with a statewide average of 23,756. Broome accounts for more than a third of the votes cast, providing a base of Liberal support to balance Labor's dominance in indigenous areas. Labor's margin received a 3.0% boost in the expansion required by the one-vote one-value redistribution before the 2008 election, which added Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and surrounding communities. The Greens polled strongly in 2013 with help from the government’s support for a controversial $40 billion LNG hub at James Price Point, which has since been abandoned by its backers.

The Liberals have endorsed Warren Greatorex, a former police officer and the party's first ever indigenous candidate for a lower house seat. The Nationals candidate is Rob Houston, a Broome lawyer and the son of former Defence Force chief Angus Houston. Broome-based archaeologist Liz Vaughan is running for the Greens.