Wyong – NSW 2015

LIB 4.6%

Incumbent MP
Darren Webber, since 2011.

Geography
Central Coast. The seat of Wyong covers parts of Wyong Shire, including Wyong itself, Toukley, Gorokan and Chittaway Bay.

Map of Wyong's 2011 and 2015 boundaries. 2011 boundaries marked as red lines, 2015 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.
Map of Wyong’s 2011 and 2015 boundaries. 2011 boundaries marked as red lines, 2015 boundaries marked as white area. Click to enlarge.

Redistribution
Wyong lost San Remo to Swansea and Berkeley Vale to The Entrance, and gained rural areas to the west of Wyong from the Entrance. These changes increased the Liberal margin from 2.6% to 4.6%.

History
The electoral district of Wyong was first created for the 1962 election. It was abolished in 1973 and was restored in 1988. The seat was always held by Labor prior to the 2011 election.

Wyong was first won in 1962 by Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, Ray Maher. He had previously served as Member for North Sydney since 1953, but moved to Wyong upon North Sydney’s abolition. Maher resigned as Speaker in early 1965 after being accused of sexual harassment, and he retired from Parliament at the 1965 election.

Maher was succeeded in 1965 by the ALP’s Harry Jensen. Jensen had served as Lord Mayor of Sydney since 1957, and had before that served as Mayor of Randwick.

In 1973, Wyong was abolished, and Jensen moved to the seat of Munmorah. He served as a minister in the newly-elected Labor state government from 1976 until he retired in 1981, when Munmorah itself was abolished.

Munmorah was replaced in 1981 by the seat of Tuggerah, which was won by the ALP’s Harry Moore.

In 1988, Tuggerah was broken up into Wyong and The Entrance, and Moore was elected as Member for Wyong.

Moore retired in 1991, and was succeeded by Paul Crittenden, and Crittenden held Wyong until his retirement in 2007.

Wyong was won in 2007 by the ALP’s candidate, former school principal David Harris. He held the seat for one term, and in 2011 lost to Liberal candidate Darren Webber.

Darren Webber resigned from the Liberal Party in 2014 after he faced investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Candidates
Sitting independent (and ex-Liberal) MP Darren Webber is not running for re-election.

Assessment
Wyong is a very marginal seat, but the seat was traditionally a Labor seat. The seat’s Labor history, and Darren Webber’s four-year term holding the seat, should give Labor a good shot at winning Wyong back.

2011 election result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Darren Webber Liberal 20,655 45.9 +14.3 47.1
David Harris Labor 18,038 40.1 -2.5 37.8
Sue Wynn Greens 4,894 10.9 +5.8 10.2
Roger Fernandez Christian Democrats 1,444 3.2 +0.5 3.2
Others 1.7

2011 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Darren Webber Liberal 21,771 52.6 +9.5 54.6
David Harris Labor 19,619 47.4 -9.5 45.4
Polling places in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election. Central in green, East in yellow, South in blue, West in red. Click to enlarge.
Polling places in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election. Central in green, East in yellow, South in blue, West in red. Click to enlarge.

Booth breakdown
Booths in Wyong have been split into four parts: east, central, south and west. The ‘west’ area covers rural areas on the fringe of Wyong, and has a much smaller population than the other three areas, which are mostly urban.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas. The Liberal Party won a slim seven-vote majority in the east, and around 56% in the centre and south, and over 77% in the west.

The Greens came third, with a vote ranging from 9.7% in the west to 11.2% in the east.

Voter group LIB 2PP % GRN % Total votes % of votes
East 50.0 11.2 11,883 28.2
Central 56.3 9.8 9,120 21.6
South 55.7 10.4 8,044 19.1
West 77.2 9.7 1,585 3.8
Other votes 54.7 9.6 11,522 27.3
Two-party-preferred votes in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election.
Greens primary votes in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election.
Greens primary votes in Wyong at the 2011 NSW state election.

3 COMMENTS

  2. Even with the redistribution being favourable to the Liberals, the presence of a popular Labor candidate and hard working candidate and the way the Liberal candidate is campaigning, not to mention the Webber factor, the feeling that I am getting in the electorate is this will be an easy Labor gain.

  3. Pretty certain this will be an easy Labor gain with a margin for David Harris of at least 5% post-election. Only hear good things about him and the work he has done locally.

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