Mackellar – Election 2010

LIB 12.4%

Incumbent
Bronwyn Bishop, since 1994. Previously Senator for New South Wales 1987-1994.

Geography
Northern beaches of Sydney. Mackellar covers Pittwater council area and a majority of the Warringah council area. Major suburbs include Dee Why, Collaroy, Narrabeen, Mona Vale, Avalon and Frenchs Forest.

Redistribution
Most of Mackellar’s boundaries were unchanged in the redistribution, although the seat did expand slightly into Forestville, gaining territory from Warringah.

History
Mackellar was created in 1949 as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives. It has always been won by the Liberal Party with substantial margins.

The seat was first won in 1949 by William Wentworth, grandson of colonial political figure William Charles Wentworth. Wentworth had previously polled 20% of the vote in the seat of Wentworth (named after his grandfather) as an independent in 1943.

Wentworth was a leading red-baiter in Parliament during the 1950s, although he remained in Parliament for almost two decades after winning Mackellar. He was close to John Gorton, and when Gorton became Prime Minister in early 1968 he appointed Wentworth to cabinet as the first ever federal minister with responsibility for Aboriginal affairs. Wentworth remained on the frontbench under Billy McMahon and served in the ministry until McMahon’s defeat in 1972.

Wentworth announced his retirement in 1977, but didn’t wait for the election to resign from the Liberal Party, after returning to the role of outspoken backbench rebel during the first term of the Fraser government. He ran as an independent for the Senate in 1977 and polled 2%.

Wentworth was succeeded in Mackellar by Liberal candidate Jim Carlton, who had served as the state party’s General Secretary during the 1970s. Carlton served as a minister in the final year of the Fraser government, and was a frontbencher in the Liberal opposition from the Hawke government’s election in 1983 until the 1990 election. Carlton retired from Parliament in 1994.

The ensuing by-election was won by sitting Senator and Liberal frontbencher Bronwyn Bishop. Bishop had been a  Senator for New South Wales since 1987, and had been a prominent Opposition frontbencher, and had been discussed as a possible leadership contender. She played a prominent role in the opposition frontbench after winning the by-election, but her colleagues did not share her assessment of her leadership potential, and she was passed over in favour of first Alexander Downer and then John Howard.

Bishop was appointed to a junior ministerial role after the election of the Howard government in 1996. She was dropped from the ministry after the 2001 election after a controversial tenure as Minister for Ageing. She ran for Speaker after the 2004 election but was not selected by the Liberal Party.

Candidates

• Jonathan King (Greens)
• Linda Beattie (Labor)
• Bronwyn Bishop (Liberal) – Senator for New South Wales 1987-1994, Member for Mackellar since 1994.

Political situation
This is a very safe Liberal seat.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Booth breakdown
The seat of Mackellar covers Pittwater council and a majority of Warringah council area, with a majority of voters living in the Warringah council area. Booths in Warringah have been divided into two areas: those near the coast around Dee Why and Collaroy and those further inland around Belrose and Frenchs Forest.

The Liberal Party won large majorities everywhere in the seat, with the exception of Scotland Island, where the Greens polled 34%. The major parties each polled about a quarter of the vote with the Climate Change Coalition polling almost 10%. This produces a meaningless figure of 68% two-party preferred for the ALP.

The Liberal Party polled 66% in the southwestern part of the seat, polling around 60% along the coastal strip from Dee Why to Avalon. The Greens polled over 14% in the Pittwater area, just over 10% in the Dee Why-Collaroy area and 8.6% in Belrose-Frenchs Forest