Electoral district of Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Leslie Williams of the Liberal Party.

Port Macquarie
New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Location in New South Wales
StateNew South Wales
Dates current1988–present
MPLeslie Williams
PartyLiberal
Electors59,974 (2019)
Area1,459.69 km2 (563.6 sq mi)

It presently includes parts of coastal Port Macquarie-Hastings City Council (including Port Macquarie, Dunbogan, Bonny Hills, Kendall, Kew, Laurieton, North Haven and West Haven) and the northeast of the City of Greater Taree (including Coopernook, Lansdowne, Moorland, Hannam Vale, Johns River and Stewarts River). The district also includes Lord Howe Island.[1]

History

Port Macquarie was created in 1988, replacing Oxley (which was recreated in 1991). It has historically been a comfortably safe seat for the National Party. Dating to its time as Oxley, the Port Macquarie area had been held by a conservative party since the return to single-member seats in 1927, and had been in National hands for all but six years since 1945.

This tradition was broken in 2002, when three-term National member and shadow minister Rob Oakeshott resigned from the party to become an independent. He was handily reelected as an independent in 2003 and 2007. In 2003, he was returned with 82 percent of the two-party vote, making Port Macquarie the safest seat in the legislature.

Oakeshott resigned in 2008 to run in a by-election for the federal seat of Lyne, which was based on Port Macquarie at the time. He was succeeded by longtime friend and staffer Peter Besseling.

However, Besseling was swept out by the Nationals' Leslie Williams at the 2011 state election amid the massive National wave that swept through rural NSW that year. This was due in part to voter anger at Oakeshott's support for the minority federal Labor government. Despite Oakeshott's personal popularity, the Port Macquarie area was still National heartland. "Traditional" two-party matchups between the Nationals and Labor during Oakeshott and Besseling's tenures had always shown Port Macquarie as a comfortably safe National seat.

Proving this, Williams easily retained Port Macquarie in 2015. Despite suffering a 9.8 percent swing against Labor, she still sits on a majority of 19 percent, making Port Macquarie the sixth-safest National seat and the 17th-safest Coalition seat.

In 2020 Williams defected to the Liberals whilst still member for Port Macquarie making it the first time the seat has been held by a Liberal.

It marks the second time, after Oakeshott, that a member for Port Macquarie has quit the Nationals whilst holding the seat.[2][3][4]

Prior to Williams' defection to the Liberals, the Liberal Party has never contested Port Macquarie.[5][6][7][8]

Members for Port Macquarie
MemberPartyTerm
  Bruce Jeffery [9] National 1988–1991
  Wendy Machin [10] National 1991–1996
  Rob Oakeshott [11] National 1996–2002
  Independent 2002–2008
  Peter Besseling [12] Independent 2008–2011
  Leslie Williams [13] National 2011–2020
  Liberal 2020–present

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the district of Port Macquarie
This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2019 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § Port Macquarie[edit]
2019 New South Wales state election: Port Macquarie [14][15]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Leslie Williams 33,538 63.60 +1.51
Labor Peter Alley 12,220 23.17 −0.93
Greens Drusi Megget 4,119 7.81 −1.09
Sustainable Australia Jan Burgess 2,858 5.42 +5.42
Total formal votes 52,735 96.40 −0.79
Informal votes 1,971 3.60 +0.79
Turnout 54,706 91.22 −0.30
Two-party-preferred result
National Leslie Williams 34,725 70.27 +1.32
Labor Peter Alley 14,690 29.73 −1.32
National hold Swing+1.32

References
  1. "Port Macquarie". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  2. https://www.nswnationals.org.au/nationals-to-contest-port-macquarie-in-2023/
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/15/nationals-will-field-a-candidate-in-port-macquarie-against-sitting-liberal-mp
  4. https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=DTWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailytelegraph.com.au%2Fnews%2Fnsw%2Fjohn-barilaro-to-announce-nationals-will-run-a-port-macquarie-candidate%2Fnews-story%2F07755dcaa5c69c843b83a9c9886c997e&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium
  5. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/electionresults18562007/DistrictIndexes/PortMacquarie.htm
  6. https://www.abc.net.au/elections/nsw/2011/guide/pmac.htm
  7. https://www.abc.net.au/news/nsw-election-2015/guide/pmac/
  8. https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/nsw/2019/guide/pmac
  9. "Mr Bruce Leslie Jeffery (1944- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  10. "Ms Wendy Susan Machin (1958- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 22 August 2019.
  11. "Mr Robert James Murray Oakeshott (1969- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
  12. "Mr Peter Edward Besseling". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  13. "The Hon. Leslie Gladys Willimas MP". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  14. "Port Macquarie: First Preference Votes". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  15. "Port Macquarie: Distribution of Preferences". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
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