The Division of Stirling was an Australian electoral division in the inner northern and beachside suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, which included a large portion of the local government area of the City of Stirling.

Stirling
Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Stirling in Western Australia, as of the 2016 federal election
Created1955
Abolished2022
NamesakeSir James Stirling
Electors100,781 (2019)
Area74 km2 (28.6 sq mi)
DemographicInner metropolitan

History

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Sir James Stirling, the division's namesake

The electorate was created in the Western Australia redistribution of 10 August 1955, and was named after Sir James Stirling, the 19th-century founding lieutenant governor and governor of Western Australia. Stirling covered a demographically diverse area, including several affluent beachside suburbs, as well as working class areas further inland. As a result, Stirling was often a marginal seat, alternating between the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party of Australia.

Unlike some marginal seats on the east coast, such as Eden-Monaro, Stirling was not often seen as a reliable barometer for winning government. For example, longtime Labor member Harry Webb survived the massive Coalition landslide of 1966, only to become one of two Labor MPs from the state to be defeated in 1972 even as Labor ended 23 years of Coalition rule. While it elected five government MPs, all but three of its members have spent at least one term in opposition.

Besides Webb, who held the seat for all but one term from its creation in 1955 until his defeat in 1972, the seat's most prominent member was Labor's Ron Edwards, who was Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives from 29 August 1989 to 8 February 1993. It had been expected that if the 1993 election had not been called so soon after Leo McLeay's resignation as Speaker or if Edwards had held his seat in the election upon the re-election of the Keating government, Edwards would have been elected Speaker.

Opinion polls in the leadup to the 2004 election had suggested a close result in Stirling, leaning towards the possibility of sitting Labor member Jann McFarlane retaining her seat. This was thought to have been more likely after Paul Afkos, the original Liberal candidate, was forced to resign after he was revealed to have borrowed money from a convicted drug dealer. A local businessman, Michael Keenan, was brought in as his replacement, and maintained the close difference in polling. However, on election day, the swing to the Liberal Party both statewide and nationwide was stronger than expected, and Keenan was ultimately successful in unseating McFarlane. The Stirling Times, a local newspaper, speculated in October 2006 that McFarlane, at that time a Stirling councillor, might contest the seat again in 2007. On 28 November 2006, former SAS officer and outspoken opponent of the Iraq War Peter Tinley accepted an offer from Kim Beazley to run as the ALP candidate in the 2007 election.[1] Ahead of the 2010 election, Labor preselected Louise Durack, a social worker and executive director of People With Disabilities (WA) and past candidate for the state seat of Ocean Reef, to run for the seat. Keenan was re-elected at the 2010 federal election.

It was confirmed in June 2021 that this division would be abolished at the 2022 federal election, with its area redistributed to the neighbouring divisions of Cowan, Curtin, Moore and Perth.[2][3]

Geography

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Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.[4]

The division included the northern majority of the City of Stirling and a small portion of the City of Bayswater. Suburbs included[5]


In the redistribution that resulted in Stirling's abolition, the suburbs it contained west of the Mitchell Freeway were divided into two. In the north, the suburbs of Carine and Watermans Bay and the northern areas of Gwelup, Karrinyup and Trigg were allocated to Moore, while in the south, the remaining southern portions of Gwelup, Karrinyup and Trigg, along with Stirling's portion of Scarborough, were allocated to Curtin. East of the Mitchell Freeway, the southern fringe of the electorate, containing the suburbs of Joondanna, Tuart Hill and Yokine, along with the southern portion of Dianella, the south-east of Osborne Park, and Stirling's section of Morley, were allocated to Perth. The remainder of the electorate, approximately half of its total area, and including the suburbs of Balcatta, Balga, Hamersley, Mirrabooka, Nollamara, Stirling, and Westminster, along with the northern sections of Dianella and Morley and the north-east of Osborne Park, were allocated to Cowan.[6]

Members

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Image Member Party Term Notes
    Harry Webb
(1908–2000)
Labor 10 December 1955
22 November 1958
Previously held the Division of Swan. Lost seat
    Doug Cash
(1919–2002)
Liberal 22 November 1958
9 December 1961
Lost seat. Later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Mirrabooka in 1968
    Harry Webb
(1908–2000)
Labor 9 December 1961
2 December 1972
Lost seat
    Ian Viner
(1933–)
Liberal 2 December 1972
5 March 1983
Served as minister under Fraser. Lost seat
    Ron Edwards
(1945–)
Labor 5 March 1983
13 March 1993
Lost seat
    Eoin Cameron
(1951–2016)
Liberal 13 March 1993
3 October 1998
Lost seat
    Jann McFarlane
(1944–)
Labor 3 October 1998
9 October 2004
Lost seat
    Michael Keenan
(1972–)
Liberal 9 October 2004
11 April 2019
Served as minister under Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison. Retired
    Vince Connelly
(1978–)
18 May 2019
11 April 2022
Failed to win the Division of Cowan when Stirling was abolished in 2022

Election results

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2019 Australian federal election: Stirling[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Vince Connelly 40,757 46.97 −2.48
Labor Melita Markey 27,623 31.83 −0.34
Greens Judith Cullity 10,439 12.03 +0.35
One Nation Angus Young 3,129 3.61 +3.61
Western Australia Elizabeth Re 1,750 2.02 +2.02
United Australia Dorothy Hutton 1,577 1.82 +1.82
Christians Kevin Host 1,504 1.73 −0.71
Total formal votes 86,779 95.32 −0.53
Informal votes 4,259 4.68 +0.53
Turnout 91,038 89.97 +2.24
Two-party-preferred result
Liberal Vince Connelly 48,289 55.65 −0.47
Labor Melita Markey 38,490 44.35 +0.47
Liberal hold Swing −0.47

References

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  1. ^ "Former SAS soldier approached by Labor". ABC News. 28 November 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2006.
  2. ^ "Names and boundaries of federal electoral divisions in Western Australia decided". Australian Electoral Commission. 4 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  3. ^ "Western Australia to lose seat of Stirling, plus big changes to Pearce and Cowan". The Australian. 19 March 2021.
  4. ^ Muller, Damon (14 November 2017). "The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Profile of the electoral division of Stirling (WA)". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  6. ^ "Names and boundaries of federal electoral divisions in Western Australia decided". Australian Electoral Commission. 4 June 2021. Retrieved 30 June 2021.
  7. ^ Stirling, WA, Tally Room 2019, Australian Electoral Commission.
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31°52′37″S 115°49′05″E / 31.877°S 115.818°E / -31.877; 115.818