The Division of Blaxland is an Australian electoral division in the

state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. Blaxland runs from the North Shore and Western railway line in the north to Marion Street and the Bankstown railway line in the south, between Woodville Road in the west and Stacey Street in the east, covering 61 square kilometers of

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 la ...

heartland in the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic counties of England, historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th c ...

and Canterbury-Bankstown local government areas in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

's west, with strong Middle Eastern and East Asian communities.

History

The division was created in 1949 and is named after

Gregory Blaxland Gregory Blaxland (17 June 1778 – 1 January 1853) was an English pioneer farmer and explorer in Australia, noted especially for initiating and co-leading the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains by European settlers. Early life ...

, a farmer and an early Australian explorer of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. The division has been a comfortably safe seat for Labor since its creation; western Sydney has been a Labor ''

heartland Heartland or Heartlands may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Heartland Bank, a New Zealand-based financial institution * Heartland Inn, a chain of hotels based in Iowa, United States * Heartland Alliance, an anti-poverty organization ...

'' for over a century. Initially created as a notional

Lang Labor Lang Labor was a faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) consisting of the supporters of Jack Lang, who served two terms as Premier of New South Wales and was the party's state leader from 1923 to 1939. Following the expulsion of the N ...

seat, the official ALP narrowly won it over former NSW

Premier Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

Jack Lang. This is the only election at which (official) Labor has won less than 56 percent of the two-party vote, as well as the only one in which it did not win an outright majority on the first count. Its most notable member has been

Paul Keating Paul John Keating (born 18 January 1944) is an Australian former politician and unionist who served as the 24th prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996, holding office as the leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He previously serv ...

, who was

Prime Minister of Australia The prime minister of Australia is the head of government of the Commonwealth of Australia. The prime minister heads the executive branch of the federal government of Australia and is also accountable to federal parliament under the princip ...

from 1991 until 1996 after having previously served as

Treasurer of Australia The Treasurer of Australia (or Federal Treasurer) is a high ranking official and senior minister of the Crown in the Government of Australia who is the head of the Ministry of the Treasury which is responsible for government expenditure and ...

from 1983 until 1991. In 2007, Keating's successor,

Michael Hatton Michael John Hatton (born 28 August 1951, Sydney) is a former Australian politician who served as the Australian Labor Party member of the House of Representatives from June 1996 to October 2007, representing the Division of Blaxland, New Sout ...

, lost preselection for this seat to current member Jason Clare, who was a staffer for former New South Wales

Bob Carr Robert John Carr (born 28 September 1947) is an Australian retired politician and journalist who served as the 39th Premier of New South Wales from 1995 to 2005, as the leader of the NSW Branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP). He later en ...

. In 2017, the division had the highest percentage of "No" responses in the

Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey was a national survey designed to gauge support for legalising same-sex marriage in Australia. The survey was held via the postal service between 12 September and 7 November 2017. Unlike voting in ...

, with 73.9% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "No". The Survey had strong opposition from

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

communities in the electorate.

Boundaries

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. The division is based in the western suburbs of

, and includes the suburbs of

Bass Hill Bass Hill, () a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 23 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the South-western Sydney ...

, Berala, Birrong,

Chester Hill Chester Hill, a suburb of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown local government area, is located 19 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is part of Western Sydney, Chester Hil ...

Georges Hall Georges Hall, a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is located 24 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is part of the South-western Sydney regio ...

, Lansdowne, Lansvale, Potts Hill,

Regents Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwe ...

, Sefton, and Yagoona; and parts of the business park and airport at

Bankstown Airport Bankstown Airport is an airport and business park located in the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, approximately from the Sydney Central Business District (CBD), Australia and west of Sydney Airport. It is situated on of land and has three paral ...

; as well as parts of Auburn,

Bankstown Bankstown is a suburb south west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 16 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is located in the local government area of the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, hav ...

Canley Vale Canley Vale is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Canley Vale is located 30 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Australia, local government area of the City of Fairfiel ...

, Carramar,

Condell Park Condell Park, a suburb of local government area City of Canterbury-Bankstown, is 21 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, and is a part of the south-western Sydney region ...

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

, Lidcombe, Merrylands, South Granville, Villawood, and Yennora.

Demographics

Blaxland is a

socially conservative Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...

and historically

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

electorate which includes sizable

immigrant Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, ...

populations from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

, and the Middle East. While the electorate remains an electoral stronghold for the

center-left Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ce ...

Labor Party, it has one of the highest

populations in Australia at 29.2%. According to the 2016 census, 20.1% of electors spoke

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

at home, the highest percentage in Australia.

Members

Election results

References

External links

Division of Blaxland - Australian Electoral Commission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaxland, Division of Electoral divisions of Australia Constituencies established in 1949 1949 establishments in Australia