Division of Swan

Swan Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Swan (green) in Western Australia
Created	1901
MP	Steve Irons
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Swan River
Electors	95,287 (2013)
Area	126 km2 (48.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Swan is an Australian electoral division located in Western Australia. The division is named after the Swan River.

For several decades, it has been a marginal seat, extending along the Swan and Canning Rivers from the affluent suburbs in the City of South Perth to the west, which typically vote for the Liberal Party, to the City of Belmont to the east and parts of the City of Canning to the south-east, which are more working-class in orientation and typically vote for the Labor Party. A redistribution ahead of the 2010 election has added the strongly Labor-voting suburb of Langford, which was previously within Tangney, which has made it a notionally Labor seat.

The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. Historically, the electorate was a country seat extending north to Dongara, east to Merredin and south to the coast. It contracted to an area east of the Darling Range and became a safe Country Party seat. Prior to the 1949 election, its old area became the new seat of Moore, while Swan moved into approximately its present position, although initially extending as far north-east as Midland.

From 2004 to 2007 it was the third most marginal electorate in Australia, after Hindmarsh and Kingston, with the ALP incumbent Kim Wilkie winning 50.08% of the two-party-preferred vote in 2004.

In the 2007 election, Liberal candidate Steve Irons won the seat with a swing of 0.19%. Irons was the only Coalition challenger to unseat a Labor incumbent in the 2007 election. He was reelected with a slightly increased majority in 2010.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Sir John Forrest	Protectionist	1901–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1918
	Edwin Corboy	Labor	1918–1919
	John Prowse	Country	1919–1922
	Henry Gregory	Country	1922–1940
	Thomas Marwick	Country	1940–1943
		Independent Country	1943–1943
	Don Mountjoy	Labor	1943–1946
	Len Hamilton	Country	1946–1949
	Bill Grayden	Liberal	1949–1954
	Harry Webb	Labor	1954–1955
	Richard Cleaver	Liberal	1955–1969
	Adrian Bennett	Labor	1969–1975
	John Martyr	Liberal	1975–1980
	Kim Beazley	Labor	1980–1996
	Don Randall	Liberal	1996–1998
	Kim Wilkie	Labor	1998–2007
	Steve Irons	Liberal	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Swan

Australian federal election, 2013: Swan

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Steve Irons	39,972	48.86	+2.35
	Labor	John Bissett	25,037	30.60	−4.68
	Greens	Gerard Siero	9,446	11.55	−0.26
	Palmer United	Ken Duncan	3,463	4.23	+4.23
	Christians	Steve Klomp	1,465	1.79	+1.79
	Family First	Moyna Rapp	797	0.97	−0.26
	Protectionist	Troy Ellis	718	0.88	+0.88
	Rise Up Australia	Paul Davies	488	0.60	+0.60
	Katter's Australian	Noel Avery	421	0.51	+0.51
Total formal votes			81,807	94.37	−0.73
Informal votes			4,879	5.63	+0.73
Turnout			86,686	90.97	−1.00
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Steve Irons	46,246	56.53	+4.00
	Labor	John Bissett	35,561	43.47	−4.00
	Liberal hold		Swing	+4.00

External links

• Division of Swan - Australian Electoral Commission