ALP 10.4%
Incumbent MP
Bill Shorten, since 2007.
Geography
Western Melbourne. Maribyrnong covers suburbs near the Maribyrnong River, including all Moonee Valley council area, parts of Maribyrnong council area and small parts of Brimbank, Melbourne and Moreland council areas. Suburbs include Essendon, Aberfeldie, Moonee Ponds, Niddrie, Gowanbrae, Essendon Fields, Ascot Vale, West Footscray and Flemington.
Redistribution
The old seat of Maribyrnong was effectively split in two, with the western parts of the seat (including St Albans, Sunshine North, Braybrook, Keilor and Kealba) moved into the new seat of Fraser. The eastern end of the seat kept the name ‘Maribyrnong’, while also taking in Gowanbrae, Essendon Fields and Strathmore Heights from Wills, West Footscray from Gellibrand, and Ascot Vale and Flemington from Melbourne. These changes cut the Labor margin from 12.3% to 10.4%.
History
Maribyrnong was created for the 1906 election. Apart from a few early wins by conservative parties, the seat has almost always been won by the ALP.
The seat was first won in 1906 by Samuel Mauger, a member of the Anti-Socialist party. Mauger had previously held Melbourne Ports since Federation. He joined the Commonwealth Liberal Party on its formation in 1909, but lost Maribyrnong in 1910 to Labor candidate James Fenton.
Fenton held the seat continuously for the next two decades, and became Minister for Trade in the Scullin government in 1929. He served as Acting Prime Minister in 1930 when Scullin was travelling, and during this period he breached with the majority of the Labor caucus, and in 1931 he followed Joseph Lyons out of the ALP and joined the new United Australia Party.
Fenton won re-election in 1931 as a UAP candidate, and served as a minister for the first year of the Lyons government, but fell out with the government and served out his term as a backbencher, losing the seat in 1934 to the ALP’s Arthur Drakeford.
Drakeford served as Minister for the Air and Minister for Civil Aviation for the entirety of the Labor government from 1941 to 1949, and held his seat until his defeat at the 1955 election, when preferences from anti-communist Labor rebels (who later formed the Democratic Labor Party) delivered the seat to Liberal candidate Philip Stokes.
Stokes managed to hold on to the seat for the next decade as Maribyrnong saw a high vote for the DLP. Stokes held the seat until his defeat in 1969.
Maribyrnong was won in 1969 by the ALP’s Moss Cass. Cass served as Minister for the Environment in the Whitlam government, and retired from Parliament in 1983.
The seat was won in 1983 by Alan Griffiths. Griffiths joined the ministry after the 1990 election, and served as a minister until he was forced to resign from the ministry in 1994 due to allegations that he used his electoral office resources to bail out a failed sandwich shop venture. He retired from Parliament in 1996.
Maribyrnong was won in 1996 by Bob Sercombe, a former Victorian state MP. Sercombe had served as Deputy Leader of the ALP before attempting a leadership coup against John Brumby, Leader of the Opposition. Sercombe briefly served as a junior shadow minister after the 2004 election. He was challenged for preselection in 2005 by AWU National Secretary Bill Shorten, and he withdrew.
Shorten won the seat in 2007, and has been re-elected three times.
Shorten was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary after the 2007 election. He was appointed as a minister in 2010 and joined cabinet in 2011. He was elected leader of the opposition following the 2013 election.
Candidates
- MD Sarwar Hasan (United Australia)
- James Williams (Greens)
- Bill Shorten (Labor)
- Christine Stow (Liberal)
Assessment
Maribyrnong is a safe Labor seat.
2016 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Bill Shorten | Labor | 47,402 | 50.5 | +2.6 | 42.1 |
| Ted Hatzakortzian | Liberal | 30,283 | 32.3 | -0.8 | 33.7 |
| Olivia Ball | Greens | 9,151 | 9.8 | -0.2 | 17.2 |
| Catherine Cumming | Independent | 3,172 | 3.4 | +3.4 | 2.3 |
| Fiona Mcrostie | Animal Justice | 2,176 | 2.3 | +2.3 | 2.0 |
| Anthony O’Neill | Australian Christians | 1,650 | 1.8 | +0.8 | 1.1 |
| Others | 1.5 | ||||
| Informal | 4,568 | 4.6 |
2016 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Bill Shorten | Labor | 58,465 | 62.3 | +0.9 | 60.4 |
| Ted Hatzakortzian | Liberal | 35,369 | 37.7 | -0.9 | 39.6 |
Booth breakdown
Polling places in Maribyrnong have been divided into four parts: north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas, ranging from 51.9% in the north-east to 69.4% in the south-west.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 7.2% in the north-west to 35% in the south-east (which includes areas previously included in the Greens seat of Melbourne).
| Voter group | GRN prim % | ALP 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North-East | 13.4 | 51.9 | 16,493 | 17.9 |
| North-West | 7.2 | 58.5 | 16,489 | 17.9 |
| South-East | 35.0 | 68.8 | 8,653 | 9.4 |
| South-West | 22.8 | 69.4 | 8,596 | 9.3 |
| Other votes | 18.2 | 62.5 | 17,433 | 18.9 |
| Pre-poll | 17.6 | 59.8 | 24,586 | 26.7 |
Election results in Maribyrnong at the 2016 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.
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Disagree with the comment that real men don’t cry. I would be worried if someone had never cried because it is only through learning from those periods of lost that helps a boy to become a man. If Shorten is driven by his mothers experience to ensure opportunities exist instead of barriers then that would be a positive outcome.
Gees some of you guys are heartless. The guy is still a human, and I sure as shit would be close to tears if I had to defend my late mother and my memory of her to a national audience based on a smear from a tabloid newspaper. The telegraph is a disgrace for running that headline against a pollie’s late mother
Bill Shorten, the usual union tactic is to invade an office workplace, like the Daily Telegraph, and harass the office workers or invade the Commonwealth Parliament Great Hall after smashing the entry doors.
If Bill Shorten gets in the country will be terrible to live in. He is going to steal our money from us.
We won’t be able to afford things we do now. I think he’s a disgusting person. Not like Scott Morrison who is an absolute gentleman. Bill has got a lot to learn. Australia will be bankrupt while he’s around. Typical Union man.
Looks like some boomers found the way to the blog.
Bill Shorten mooted today that if he forms government Julie Bishop may be a contender to replace Joe Hockey as our ambassador to the USA. Bishop and Senator Penny Wong have worked well together in the past in parliament and on some visits to nearby island nations.
Bye bye Bill and welcome Tania as the new Labor leader. Sorry Mrs Shorten you will not be redecorating The Lodge.
What about Albanesse, Adian?
11.40 PM Shorten has resigned as ALP leader but staying on as the local member but that could be dangerous like Abbott was. Yes Albanesse is in the mix for leader too.
Voters did not forget Shortens knifing of Rudd and Gillard.
Some of the primary vote swings in the areas transferred from Melbourne are insane!
The Greens outpolled the Liberals in virtually all of the Flemington, Ascot Vale, and Footscray area booths.
This is probably an “out there” conspiracy theory of mine but was Shorten talked into the unpopular retirement tax and anti negative gearing platform so he could lose the election and to get rid of him so a better stateman/woman like leader could emerge? Shorten does not have stateman like qualities and supporters of Rudd and Gillard may still be unhappy with his knifing of these former PM’s.
About 5 years ago when there was a ALP leadership vote the Rank & File membership voted for Albanese while the faceless men at ALP HQ supported Shorten. Lets hope they get is right this time for the sake of ALP voters and the ALP members.
The ALP should divest itself from that dreadful union organisation of trade union hacks. Few workers are joining a union which is an organisation on the way out. Queensland the founding home of the ALP and unions in the 1890’s is now the state that rejects both.
Adrian working people need unions as protection…… otherwise they rely on the bosses goodwill
lots of insecure jobs now.. lots of people nominally self employed………..
Most working people are owner operators of small businesses be they a tradie business (plumber, electrician etc) or milk bar owner and have no need of a union.
From my experience working for the Meat and Allied Federation in the early 1970’s I would say that small business has far more need of union representation than employees or agree business. They need representation over
Industrial relations
Food regulations
Workplace Health and Safety
Regulations on this that and the other
This is to say nothing about when they are clearly guilty of breaches of health regulations. Electricians and plumbers are regulated by Australian Standards and need some input into these standards. Their interests are not served by allowing big business to represent them by default.
Adrian, only 17% of Australians are self-employed, which I hardly think qualifies as “most working people”. The vast majority of workers in Australia are an employee working for somebody else.
But most wage earners still don’t join a union though as they are paid better when compared to other first world countries including the UK, Ireland and USA. Also many unions are now irrelevant like the ones who “represented” car builders now we have no car industry. Remember on the TV news, in the recent past, we used to see ALP PM’s and ministers staring up uncomprehendingly at a brake drum of a car on a hoist but it kept the union officials happy to see this.
Many don’t join unions anymore as their wages are quiet good if in permanent work when compared with other 1st world nations like UK, Ireland and USA.
Many tradies are business people and are more likely to vote Coalition rather than Labor and have no interest in unions who collect membership fees to channel to the ALP or the pockets on union officials.
Trent
Many of those who are “self employed” are as much in a servant master relationship as are employee -employer relationships.
I agree that we need to Change the Rules to what they were during Menzies – Fraser era. Contracts of Service need to be rewarded with at least twice minimum wage and 95% of employees put back on Awards or Industrial agreements.
I never saw why electorate disliked Shorten but liked Hawke. Both came to power dripping of blood. Harry Souter and Bill Hayden were as much victims as was Rudd and Gillard.
Liberals understandably played on Shorten’s perceived weaknesses as did ALP Greens played on Abbott’s perceived weaknesses.
We need some of Shorten’s policies especially in workplace relations. The alternative to a return to Arbitrated wages is the creation of a party based on workers rights a la 1890’s Shearer’s strike.
Andrew Jackson
apjackson2@bigpond.com
4 Corners on ABC TV this evening. Hawke spoke up for the Mainland China students murdered by the Communist state 30 years ago in the central plaza.