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Division of Parramatta

Parramatta Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Parramatta in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election
Created	1901
MP	Andrew Charlton
Party	Labor
Namesake	Parramatta
Electors	105,513 (2022)
Area	57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner metropolitan

The Division of Parramatta is an Australian electoral division in the stateofNew South Wales. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for the locality of Parramatta. The name Parramatta has been sourced to an Aboriginal word for the area. The Darug people had lived in the area for many generations, and regarded the area as a food bowl, rich in food from the river and forests. They called the area Baramada or Burramatta ("Parramatta") which means "the place where the eels lie down".^[1]

The division is based in the western suburbs of Sydney. Besides Parramatta, it includes Camellia, Clyde, Constitution Hill, Dundas Valley, Granville, Harris Park, Holroyd, Mays Hill, North Parramatta, Oatlands, Rosehill, Rydalmere, Telopea, Wentworthville, Westmead; and parts of Carlingford, Dundas, Ermington, Guildford, Merrylands, North Rocks, Northmead, Old Toongabbie, Pendle Hill, South Granville, South Wentworthville, and Toongabbie.

Parramatta is a diverse electorate with large immigrant communities from India and China, and has a higher than average university education rate according to the 2016 census.^[2] At the time of the 2022 Australian federal election, 12% of Parramatta's population possessed Chinese ancestry.^[3]

The current Member for the Division of Parramatta, since the 2022 federal election, is Andrew Charlton, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Geography[edit]

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]

History[edit]

As originally created, it covered the outer northwestern suburbs of Sydney, though that city's dramatic growth made it an entirely urban seat after World War II. For most of the first seven decades after Federation, it included a large amount of conservative-leaning territory that usually swamped Parramatta itself, which has historically been a working-class area. As a result, the seat was held by the Liberals and their predecessors for all but one term from Federation until 1977.

Aredistribution ahead of the 1977 election split Parramatta almost in half. Most of the wealthier eastern half became the comfortably safe Liberal seat of Dundas. Most of the western half, including the bulk of the Parramatta LGA, became the core of a marginal Labor seat that retained the Parramatta name, as per Australian Electoral Commission guidelines that require the names of original Federation electorates to be preserved where possible.^[5][6] However, the reconfigured Parramatta was anchored in traditionally pro-Labor territory in western Sydney. Parramatta's Liberal incumbent, Phillip Ruddock, opted to follow most of his base into Dundas, allowing his 1975 challenger, John Brown to become only the second Labor member ever to win Parramatta.

Since then, it has been located between Labor's traditional heartland of western Sydney and the traditional Liberal stronghold of the North Shore. As a result, whenever the seat is redistributed, a shift of a few kilometres to the west or east can radically alter its political landscape.^[7]

For example, the 2006 redistribution shifted Parramatta from marginally Labor to notionally marginally Liberal (as defined by the Australian Electoral Commission). Nevertheless, as was widely expected^[8] at the 2007 federal election, the incumbent Labor member, Julie Owens, held the seat ahead of Liberal candidate Colin Robinson, a member of the Electrical Trades Union,^[8] with an increased majority.

Owens was subsequently re-elected at the 2010, 2013, 2016 elections, and 2019. Owens' win in the seat in 2004 marked the third time that the Liberals and their predecessors had won government without winning Parramatta, preceded by Brown's wins in 1975 and 1980.

Prominent members for Parramatta over the years have included (Sir) Joseph Cook, a former Prime Minister; (Sir) Garfield Barwick and Nigel Bowen, both of whom served as Attorney-General before moving to senior judicial position, Barwick as Chief Justice of the High Court. Ruddock, a former Attorney-General and Immigration Minister also represented the seat (though he was the member for Berowra by then); as did Brown, a former Sports Minister.^[7]

Members[edit]

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Sir Joseph Cook (1860–1947)	Free Trade	30 March 1901 – 1906	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Hartley. Served as Opposition Leader from 1908 to 1909, in 1913, and from 1914 to 1917. Served as minister under Deakin and Hughes. Served as Prime Minister from 1913 to 1914. Resigned to become the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom
			Anti-Socialist	1906 – 26 May 1909
			Liberal	26 May 1909 – 17 February 1917
			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 11 November 1921
		Herbert Pratten (1865–1928)		10 December 1921 – 16 December 1922	Previously a member of the Senate. Transferred to the Division of Martin
		Eric Bowden (1871–1931)		16 December 1922 – 12 October 1929	Previously held the Division of Nepean. Served as minister under Bruce. Lost seat
		Albert Rowe (1872–1955)	Labor	12 October 1929 – 19 December 1931	Lost seat
		Sir Frederick Stewart (1884–1961)	United Australia	19 December 1931 – 21 February 1945	Served as minister under Lyons, Menzies and Fadden. Retired
			Liberal	21 February 1945 – 16 August 1946
		Howard Beale (1898–1983)		28 September 1946 – 10 February 1958	Served as minister under Menzies. Resigned to become the Australian Ambassador to the United States
		Sir Garfield Barwick (1903–1997)		8 March 1958 – 24 April 1964	Served as minister under Menzies. Resigned to become Chief Justice of the High Court
		Nigel Bowen (1911–1994)		20 June 1964 – 11 July 1973	Served as minister under Holt, McEwen, Gorton and McMahon. Resigned to become a Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales
		Philip Ruddock (1943–)		22 September 1973 – 10 December 1977	Transferred to the Division of Dundas
		John Brown (1931–)	Labor	10 December 1977 – 19 February 1990	Served as minister under Hawke. Retired
		Paul Elliott (1954–)		24 March 1990 – 2 March 1996	Lost seat
		Ross Cameron (1965–)	Liberal	2 March 1996 – 9 October 2004	Lost seat
		Julie Owens (1958–)	Labor	9 October 2004 – 11 April 2022	Retired
		Andrew Charlton (1978–)		21 May 2022 – present	Incumbent

Election results[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Division of Parramatta - Australian Electoral Commission

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