Electoral district of Victoria Park

The Electoral district of Victoria Park is a Legislative Assembly electorate in the state of Western Australia. Victoria Park is named for the inner southeastern Perth suburb of Victoria Park which falls within its borders.

Victoria Park
Western Australia—Legislative Assembly
Location of Victoria Park (dark green) in the Perth metropolitan area
StateWestern Australia
Dates current1930–present
MPBen Wyatt
PartyLabor
NamesakeVictoria Park
Electors27,114 (2019)
Area24 km2 (9.3 sq mi)
DemographicSouth Metropolitan

History

Victoria Park was created at the 1929 redistribution, at which five new metropolitan electorates were created to replace former Goldfields seats in Parliament.[1] The seat is considered a safe Labor Party seat, and has been held by the party for all but eight years since its creation. William Read, who won the 1945 by-election and remained in parliament until the 1953 state election, is the only non-Labor candidate to have held the seat.[2] From 1961 to 1986 Victoria Park was held by Ron Davies, who served as Opposition Leader from 1978 until 1981. Davies left parliament in 1986 after his appointment as Agent-General for Western Australia in London, and at the resulting by-election, held on 7 June 1986, Geoff Gallop, a lecturer at Murdoch University, was elected. In 1996, he followed his predecessor into the role of opposition leader, and just over four years later, became premier after Labor's victory at the 2001 election. He retired from politics and as premier on 16 January 2006 in order to aid his recovery from depression, and that "in the interests of my health and my family, I've decided to rethink my career."[3] Labor's Ben Wyatt won the resulting by-election, with a 5% swing to the opposition Liberal candidate.

Of the five times the seat has changed members, four of them have occurred at by-elections (all except Hugh Andrew's win at the 1953 election), two of which have been caused by the death of the incumbent in office (Howard Raphael and Hugh Andrew). No incumbent member has ever been defeated.

Geography

Victoria Park is bounded by the Swan River to the north, Orrong Road to the northeast, Mills and Burton Streets to the southeast, Manning Road to the south, and Kent Street, Banksia Terrace and Hurlingham Road to the west. It includes the suburbs of Bentley, Burswood, Carlisle, East Victoria Park, Lathlain, St James, Victoria Park and parts of Kensington and Welshpool.[4]

In the 2007 redistribution, the seat lost Cannington, Queens Park, Wilson and parts of Welshpool, while gaining parts of Kensington and all sections of East Victoria Park west of Berwick Street and Hill View Terrace which had been allocated to South Perth in the previous redistribution.[5]

Members for Victoria Park
MemberPartyTerm
  Howard Raphael Labor 1930–1944
  William Read Independent 1945–1953
  Hugh Andrew Labor 1953–1961
  Ron Davies Labor 1961–1986
  Geoff Gallop Labor 1986–2006
  Ben Wyatt Labor 2006–present

Election results
Main article: Electoral results for the district of Victoria Park
2017 Western Australian state election: Victoria Park[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Ben Wyatt 11,574 51.0 +6.4
Liberal Julian Jacobs 6,396 28.2 −14.5
Greens Ryan Quinn 3,272 14.4 +2.2
Christians Mark Staer 915 4.0 +4.0
Micro Business Jennifer Noye 520 2.3 +2.3
Total formal votes 22,677 95.7 +2.3
Informal votes 1,025 4.3 −2.3
Turnout 23,702 84.1 +0.0
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Ben Wyatt 15,064 66.5 +12.5
Liberal Julian Jacobs 7,595 33.5 −12.5
Labor hold Swing+12.5

References
  1. Government of Western Australia (1930). "Redistribution of Seats Act (No 1 of 1929)". Statutes of Western Australia, 1929–1930. pp. 1–56. Given assent on 15 April 1929.
  2. Black, David; Prescott, Valerie (1997). Election statistics, Legislative Assembly of Western Australia, 1890–1996 : listed alphabetically by constituency. Western Australian Parliamentary History Project. pp. 332–336.
  3. Yaxley, Louise (16 January 2006). "WA Premier Geoff Gallop resigns". ABC ("PM" program). Retrieved 27 October 2007.
  4. Western Australian Electoral Commission (29 October 2007). "2007 Electoral Distribution – Final Boundaries – South Metropolitan – Victoria Park". Archived from the original on 8 October 2008. Retrieved 5 August 2008.
  5. Western Australia Electoral Commission (4 August 2003). "Victoria Park Electoral District". Archived from the original on 22 August 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2007.
  6. Victoria Park District Profile and Results, 2017 State General Election, WAEC.
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