The Division of Forrest is an

Australian Electoral Division In Australia, electoral districts for the Australian House of Representatives are called divisions or more commonly referred to as electorates or seats. There are currently 151 single-member electorates for the Australian House of Representati ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent federal agency in charge of organising, conducting and supervising federal Australian elections, by-elections and referendums. Responsibilities The AEC's main responsibility is to ...

. 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.

History

The division was created in 1922 and is named for

Sir John Forrest Sir John Forrest (22 August 1847 – 2 SeptemberSome sources give the date as 3 September 1918 1918) was an Australian explorer and politician. He was the first premier of Western Australia (1890–1901) and a long-serving cabinet minister i ...

, the first

Premier of Western Australia The premier of Western Australia is the head of government of the state of Western Australia. The role of premier at a state level is similar to the role of the prime minister of Australia at a federal level. The premier leads the executive br ...

and a federal Cabinet minister. It is located in the south-western corner of the state and, as of the

2016 election The following elections occurred in the year 2016. Africa Benin Republic *2016 Beninese presidential election 6 March 2016 Cape Verde * 2016 Cape Verdean presidential election 2 October 2016 Chad * 2016 Chadian presidential election 10 A ...

, includes the cities of Bunbury and

Busselton Busselton is a city in the South West region of the state of Western Australia approximately south-west of Perth. Busselton has a long history as a popular holiday destination for Western Australians; however, the closure of the Busselton ...

along with the Shires of Augusta-Margaret River,

Capel Capel may refer to: People *Capell, surname, includes a list of people with the surnames Capel and Capell *Capel (given name), includes a list of people with the given name Capel Places England *Capel, Kent, a village and civil parish near T ...

, Dardanup, Donnybrook-Balingup, Harvey and Nannup (though Nannup is set to be transferred to the neighbouring seat of O'Connor at the next federal election).https://www.aec.gov.au/Electorates/Redistributions/2021/wa/files/redistribution-of-western-australia-into-electoral-divisions-august-2021.pdf Before the 1943 election, it was a Country Party seat, but since the 1949 election it has been held by the Liberals for all but one term.

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

has only held the seat for three terms, during the high-tide elections of

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 – ...

and 1946, and in the midst of the Coalition's near-defeat of 1969. It reverted to the Liberals in

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

even as Labor won government. The seat was marginal for most of the 1980s, but a 1990 redistribution made the seat much more secure for the Liberals. In 2022, amidst a statewide collapse of Liberal Party support, the seat was made marginal with sitting member Nola Marino holding the seat on a 4.29 percent margin. Notable members include Nelson Lemmon, a minister in the Chifley Government, Gordon Freeth, a minister in the

Menzies Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...

, Holt and

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century ...

governments, and

Geoff Prosser Geoffrey Daniel Prosser (born 6 November 1948) is an Australian businessman and former politician. He served in the House of Representatives from 1987 to 2007, representing the Liberal Party, and was Minister for Small Business and Consumer ...

, a minister in the

Howard Howard is an English-language given name originating from Old French Huard (or Houard) from a Germanic source similar to Old High German ''*Hugihard'' "heart-brave", or ''*Hoh-ward'', literally "high defender; chief guardian". It is also prob ...

government.

Members

Election results

References

External links

Division of Forrest - Australian Electoral Commission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forrest, Division of Electoral divisions of Australia Constituencies established in 1922 1922 establishments in Australia Federal politics in Western Australia