Division of New England

The Division of New England is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.

This article is about the electoral district of Australia. For other New Englands, see New England (disambiguation).

New England
Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of New England in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created1901
MPBarnaby Joyce
PartyNationals
NamesakeNew England
Electors111,979 (2019)
Area66,394 km2 (25,634.9 sq mi)
DemographicRural

History
The region of New England, the division's namesake

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. It is named after the New England region in northern New South Wales.

From 1922 to 2001, New England was usually regarded as a comfortably safe seat for the National Party, formerly the Country Party.[1] Only one Labor candidate has ever won the seat – Frank Foster at the 1906 election and again at the 1910 election, both times on small margins. Since then, the closest Labor has come to winning the seat was in the 1943 landslide, when the Country majority was pared back to an extremely marginal 1.1 percent. It was a marginal seat for most of the 1980s, but since the 1990s Labor has been lucky to get 40 percent of the two-party vote, and has frequently been pushed into third place.

The seat's best-known member was Ian Sinclair, leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989, a minister in the Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments and Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives for a few months in 1998. He was succeeded by Stuart St. Clair in the 1998 election.

St. Clair was then defeated in the 2001 by independent Tony Windsor, who held it until his retirement in 2013.

The member since the 2013 federal election has been former Queensland Senator Barnaby Joyce, who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the National Party from 2016 to 2018. Amid the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, the seat was declared vacant on 27 October 2017 by the High Court of Australia arising from Joyce's dual citizenship. Joyce had renounced his dual citizenship effective from August in order to become a sole citizen of Australia and was thus eligible to run for federal parliament.[2] Joyce regained the seat at a by-election on 2 December.[3]

Boundaries

The division is located in the north-east of New South Wales, adjoining the border with Queensland. The 66,394 km² division covers a largely rural area, with agriculture the main industry. From south to north it includes the regional population centres of Scone, Tamworth, Armidale, Glen Innes, Inverell and Tenterfield.

Under the original redistribution proposal in 2015, the Australian Electoral Commission announced it intended to abolish Hunter. Electors in the north of Hunter would have joined New England.[4] Ultimately however, the Commission opted for a less radical proposal that saw Charlton abolished, Hunter pushed eastward to absorb most of Charlton's territory, and New England absorbing a few small areas in Hunter's north. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales lost a seat while Western Australia gained a seat.[5]

Members
Image Member Party Term Notes
  William Sawers
(1844–1916)		 Protectionist 29 March 1901 –
16 December 1903		 Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth. Lost seat
  Edmund Lonsdale
(1843–1913)		 Free Trade 16 December 1903 –
1906		 Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale. Lost seat. Later elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale in 1907
  Anti-Socialist 1906 –
12 December 1906
  Frank Foster
(1872–1948)		 Labor 12 December 1906 –
31 May 1913		 Lost seat
  Percy Abbott
(1869–1940)		 Commonwealth Liberal 31 May 1913 –
17 February 1917		 Retired. Later elected to the Senate in 1925
  Nationalist 17 February 1917 –
3 November 1919
  Alexander Hay
(1865–1941)		 Nationalist 13 December 1919 –
22 January 1920		 Lost seat
  Country 22 January 1920 –
19 October 1921
  Independent 19 October 1921 –
16 December 1922
  Victor Thompson
(1885–1968)		 Country 16 December 1922 –
21 September 1940		 Served as minister under Lyons and Page. Lost seat
  Joe Abbott
(1891–1965)		 Country 21 September 1940 –
31 October 1949		 Served as minister under Menzies and Fadden. Retired
  David Drummond
(1890–1965)		 Country 10 December 1949 –
1 November 1963		 Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Armidale. Retired
  Ian Sinclair
(1929–)		 Country 30 November 1963 –
2 May 1975		 Previously a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Served as minister under Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton, McMahon and Fraser. Served as leader of the National Party from 1984 to 1989. Served as Speaker during the Howard Government. Retired
  National Country 2 May 1975 –
16 October 1982
  Nationals 16 October 1982 –
31 August 1998
  Stuart St. Clair
(1949–)		 Nationals 3 October 1998 –
10 November 2001		 Lost seat
  Tony Windsor
(1950–)		 Independent 10 November 2001 –
5 August 2013		 Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Tamworth. Retired
  Barnaby Joyce
(1967–)		 Nationals 7 September 2013 –
present		 Previously a member of the Senate. Served as minister under Abbott and Turnbull. Served as Deputy Prime Minister under Turnbull. Incumbent

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the Division of New England
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2019 Australian federal election in New South Wales § New England[edit]
2019 Australian federal election: New England[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Barnaby Joyce 53,348 54.82 +2.53
Independent Adam Blakester 13,804 14.18 +14.18
Labor Yvonne Langenberg 12,410 12.75 +5.74
United Australia Cindy Duncan 4,459 4.58 +4.58
Greens Tony Lonergan 4,311 4.43 +1.51
Independent Rob Taber 3,702 3.80 +1.00
Independent Natasha Ledger 3,071 3.16 +3.16
Christian Democrats Julie Collins 2,215 2.28 +0.89
Total formal votes 97,320 93.18 +0.22
Informal votes 7,120 6.82 −0.22
Turnout 104,440 93.34 −0.03
Two-party-preferred result
National Barnaby Joyce 65,818 67.63 +1.21
Labor Yvonne Langenberg 31,502 32.37 −1.21
Two-candidate-preferred result
National Barnaby Joyce 62,637 64.36 −9.27
Independent Adam Blakester 34,683 35.64 +35.64
National hold SwingN/A

References
  1. "2017 New England by-election - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". ABC News. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. "Citizenship verdicts handed down by High Court, Barnaby Joyce disqualified". ABC News. 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  3. 2017 New England by-election: Antony Green ABC
  4. Australian Electoral Commission to abolish Federal NSW seat of Hunter: ABC 16 October 2015
  5. Green, Antony. "2015-16 New South Wales Federal Redistribution". Retrieved 16 June 2016.
  6. New England, NSW, Tally Room 2019, Australian Electoral Commission.

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