LIB 34.7%
Incumbent MP
Dominic Perrottet, since 2011.
Geography
Northwestern Sydney. Castle Hill covers parts of the Hills Shire, including the suburbs of Castle Hill, Beaumount Hills, Kellyville, Glenhaven and Rouse Hill.
Redistribution
Castle Hill shifted north, losing Carlingford and West Pennant Hills and gaining more rural parts of the Hills, including Beaumont Hills, Rouse Hill and Glenhaven from Hawkesbury. These changes increased the Liberal margin from 30.8% to 34.7%.
History
Castle Hill was created in 2007, replacing the former seat of The Hills. The Hills had existed since 1962, and had always been held by Liberal MPs.
The Hills was first won in 1962 by Max Ruddock, a former president of Hornsby Shire. He served as a minister in the Coalition state government from 1975 to 1976. Shortly after the government lost power in 1976, Ruddock announced his retirement, and died six days later. His son Phillip was elected to the House of Representatives in 1973 and still serves there today.
The 1976 by-election was won by Fred Caterson. He held the seat until he resigned from Parliament in 1990.
Another by-election in 1990 was won by former car dealer Tony Packard. He was re-elected in 1991, but resigned in 1993 after being convicted of installing listening devices illegally when he worked as a car dealer.
The 1993 by-election was won by Liberal candidate Michael Richardson. He held The Hills until 2007, when he won election to the renamed seat of Castle Hill.
In 2011, Richardson lost preselection to Dominic Perrottet, who was elected.
Candidates
Sitting Liberal MP Dominic Perrottet was challenged for preselection by Hawkesbury MP Ray Williams, and will be running for Hawkesbury instead.
- Anna Stevis (No Land Tax)
- Ray Williams (Liberal)
- Michael Bellstedt (Greens)
- Muriel Sultana (Christian Democratic Party)
- Matt Ritchie (Labor)
Assessment
Castle Hill is a very safe Liberal seat.
2011 election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Dominic Perrottet | Liberal | 32,466 | 68.7 | +12.2 | 74.5 |
| Ryan Tracey | Labor | 6,690 | 14.2 | -8.8 | 11.6 |
| Alex Wallbank | Greens | 3,717 | 7.9 | -1.1 | 8.0 |
| Aileen Mountifield | Christian Democrats | 1,765 | 3.7 | -1.6 | 3.7 |
| Aaron Mendham | Independent | 1,609 | 3.4 | +3.4 | 1.3 |
| Ari Katsoulas | Family First | 1,025 | 2.2 | +2.2 | 0.9 |
2011 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Dominic Perrottet | Liberal | 34,421 | 80.8 | +11.8 | 84.7 |
| Ryan Tracey | Labor | 8,163 | 19.2 | -11.8 | 15.3 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Castle Hill have been split into four parts: north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west. South-East mostly covers the suburb of Castle Hill in the urban part of the seat.
The Liberal Party won a large majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas, ranging from 83.8% in the south-east to 88.1% in the north-east.
| Voter group | GRN % | CDP % | LIB 2PP % | Total | % of votes |
| South-East | 8.4 | 3.5 | 83.8 | 10,870 | 24.2 |
| North-West | 6.4 | 3.9 | 84.2 | 8,533 | 19.0 |
| South-West | 7.1 | 4.2 | 84.0 | 8,017 | 17.9 |
| North-East | 9.8 | 3.0 | 88.1 | 5,879 | 13.1 |
| Other votes | 8.6 | 3.6 | 84.1 | 11,538 | 25.7 |
Ray Williams became the endorsed candidate, and member, for Hawkesbury in 2007 via a branch stack that was well publicised at the time.
The redistribution did not substantially change the character of either Hawkesbury or Castle Hill, so Williams switch is surprising. Perhaps the branches best stacked are those within the territory shifted from the former to the latter.
My prediction: Easy Liberal hold.
And that does sound the most likely reason Mr. Walsh, it would make sense regarding the branch stackings.
Ray Williams has now become a political harlot. Of limited ability, and only able to criticise people, Williams has now run for Riverstone, Hawkesbury and Castle Hill. Williams is nothing short of a joke, and I certainly don’t miss having the nong as a local member.
If I remember correctly was on council and participated alongside Alex Hawke in a branch stack of the Kellyville, Beaumont hills and Rouse Hill area in around 2003 to protect the then sitting federal member Allan Cadman from a moderate challenge by David Elliott. Hawke then used the branch stack to take the seat in preselection from Cadmanin 2007. Funnily enough hawke is now allied with Elliott. Williams is not close to hawke now.
Typical NSW Liberal factionalism. Take Alex Hawke and David Clarke for example, allies one month and enemies the next.
Raymondo was the Lib candidate for Riverstone in 2003 and made a major exhibition of himself all over the electorate. Result – an additional 3 % 2PP swing to Labour. His home turf of Rouse Hill was transferred into Castle Hill and Perrottet lost the internal party arm-wrestle over who had to move.