ALP 9.9%
Incumbent MP
Julie Owens, since 2004.
Geography
Western Sydney. The seat of Parramatta covers the centre of Parramatta and surrounding suburbs, including Granville, Holroyd, Merrylands, Wentworthville, Westmead, Toongabbie, Carlingford, Dundas and Rydalmere.
Redistribution
Parramatta was substantially redrawn, moving to the south. Parramatta previously covered suburbs north of Parramatta and as far west as Blacktown.The redistribution saw a small part of the seat transferred to Mitchell and a substantial part of the western end of the seat transferred to Greenway. In exchange Parramatta moved south into Granville and Holroyd, gaining territory from Reid and Prospect.
History
Parramatta is an original Federation electorate. The seat has long been a marginal seat, focused on the Parramatta CBD. The seat has shrunk substantially from its original boundaries, when it covered most of what is now northwestern Sydney and stretched as far as Lithgow.
The seat was first won in 1901 by Joseph Cook, a former minister in George Reid’s Free Trade colonial government. Cook held the seat for the first twenty years of Federation, successively for the Free Trade Party, Anti-Socialist Party, Commonwealth Liberal Party and the Nationalists.
Cook served as Leader of the Anti-Socialist Party following George Reid’s retirement in 1908, and agreed to merge with Alfred Deakin’s Protectionists in 1909 to form the Commonwealth Liberal Party. He served as Defence Minister in Deakin’s final government and became Liberal leader after Deakin’s defeat at the 1910 election.
Cook won the 1913 election, becoming Prime Minister, but with a Labor majority in the Senate his government was stifled, and he called a Double Dissolution in 1914, which he lost.
In 1916, Labor Prime Minister Billy Hughes left the ALP over the issue of conscription, and Cook agreed to merge his Liberals with the Labor rebels to form the Nationalist Party, with Cook as Hughes’ deputy. He retired in 1921 to serve as High Commissioner in London.
The ensuing by-election was won by Herbert Pratten. Pratten moved to the new seat of Martin in 1922, and was replaced in Parramatta by fellow Nationalist Eric Bowden. Pratten held Martin until his death in 1928, while Bowden held Parramatta until 1929, when he lost the seat.
Labor candidate Albert Rowe won in 1929, but only held it for one term, losing it to United Australia Party candidate Frederick Stewart in 1931. Stewart went on to serve in a variety of ministerial roles in the Lyons and Menzies governments, and retired in 1946.
Parramatta was won in 1946 by Liberal candidate Howard Beale. Beale served as a minister in the Menzies government from its election in 1949 until his retirement in 1958, when he became Ambassador to the United States.
The seat was won in 1958 by prominent barrister Garfield Barwick, who held the seat for the Liberals until 1964, when he was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia.
The 1964 by-election was held by Liberal candidate Nigel Bowen. Bowen joined Harold Holt’s cabinet following the 1966 election and remained there until the election of the Whitlam government. He left Parliament in 1973 to serve on the NSW Supreme Court.
The 1973 by-election was a key contest during the Whitlam government. Bowen had held on by a slim margin in 1972, but Liberal candidate Philip Ruddock managed a 7% swing and won the seat.
Ruddock was re-elected in 1974 and 1975, but moved to the new seat of Dundas in 1977. He held Dundas until its abolition in 1993, when he moved to Berowra, which he still holds today. He served as Minister for Immigration then Attorney-General in the Howard government.
Parramatta was won in 1977 by the ALP’s John Brown. Brown served as a junior minister for the first two terms of the Hawke government, and was promoted to Cabinet in 1987, but was forced to resign as a minister in 1988 after misleading the House, and retired in 1990.
Brown was succeeded by former Mayor of Parramatta Paul Elliott, also an ALP member. Elliott served as a Parliamentary Secretary in the final term of the Labor government, and lost Parramatta to Liberal candidate Ross Cameron in 1996.
Cameron was appointed a Parliamentary Secretary after the 2001 election, and continued in similar roles until the 2004 election, where he was one of the few Liberal MPs to lose their seat, with Labor candidate Julie Owens winning the seat. The 2007 redistribution pushed Parramatta north and made it notionally Liberal, but a big swing saw Owens retain the seat.
Candidates
- Chris Gordon (Socialist Equality Party)
- Kalpesh Patel (Independent)
- Julie Owens (Labor) – Member for Parramatta since 2004.
- Phil Bradley (Greens)
- Alex Sharah (Christian Democratic Party)
- Duncan Roden (Socialist Alliance)
- Charles Camenzuli (Liberal)
Political situation
This seat has a long history of moving between Labor and Liberal, and would be vulnerable to a strong Liberal performance, despite the large margin. Having said that, the ALP should safely retain this seat as long as they are performing well nationally.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Julie Owens | ALP | 43,083 | 50.58 | +10.68 |
| Colin Robinson | LIB | 32,155 | 37.75 | -7.39 |
| Astrid O’Neill | GRN | 4,288 | 5.03 | +0.16 |
| Sam Baissari | CDP | 2,403 | 2.82 | +0.00 |
| Rachel Evans | SA | 1,015 | 1.19 | +1.19 |
| Rene Hernandez | FF | 888 | 1.04 | +0.09 |
| Brian Buckley | IND | 639 | 0.75 | +0.75 |
| Graham Nickols | LDP | 274 | 0.32 | +0.32 |
| Chris Gordon | SEP | 261 | 0.31 | +0.31 |
| Alasdair Macdonald | IND | 174 | 0.20 | +0.20 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Julie Owens | ALP | 48,453 | 56.88 | +7.71 |
| Colin Robinson | LIB | 36,727 | 43.12 | -7.71 |
These results do not take into consideration the effects of the redistribution.
Booth breakdown
Most of the seat of Parramatta lies within the City of Parramatta, with parts in the Hills and in Holroyd. Since the local government boundaries for Parramatta do not neatly divide areas, I have simply divided the population into four segments according to the points of the compass.
| Voter group | GRN % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of ordinary votes |
| North-East | 5.23 | 52.21 | 20,541 | 33.35 |
| South-West | 4.89 | 61.80 | 14,774 | 23.98 |
| North-West | 5.20 | 63.20 | 13,831 | 22.45 |
| South-East | 5.61 | 66.99 | 12,454 | 20.22 |
| Other votes | 5.50 | 55.92 | 15,904 |
This seat covers some very solidly Labor state seats. The shift south is good for Owens. Any future redistribution away from the Hills districts would make this one of those near-permanently safe Labor seats that Western Sydney is known for.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this swung further to Labor.
I have noted one declared candidate here, Duncan Rodan for the Socialist Alliance.
Although its obvious, Julie Owens has won preselection and is the ALP candidate for Parramatta.
The Liberals have finally chosen their candidate, local builder Charles Camenzuli.
Also the Greens candidate is Phil Bradley.
Vote for Duncan Roden, Socialist Alliance.
full-time bush regenerator,
for an ecologically sustainable environment,
human rights – especially refugees fleeing war and persecution,
Immediate Safe return of our service men and women from Afghanistan
I met the Lib candidate. He is friendly and outgoing, gets my vote. Where is the Labor candidate?
Didn’t the Libs pull their candidate because he was in some trouble with the courts?
Julie Owens has been an almost-invisible woman for the last three years. She seems to be coasting on the old anti-Howard sentiment, but what has she done to actually earn our vote this time round?
I had a revealing e.mail exchange with Ms Owens in late 2007. I wrote to her to express disappointment at Labor’s support of the then-government’s anti-gay marriage legislation, rushed through in the flurry of the election campaign, when Howard knew Labor wouldn’t be willing to risk making an election issue of it. Ms Owens wrote back that I “had” to understand, that the important thing was that Labor get into power. I asked her why I should support that view, when by doing so they’d sold out on life issues that mattered to me and so she wasn’t actually supporting or representing my interests, and I never got a reply.
I’m fed up with the Liberal party’s air of entitlement and superiority, but the Labor mob isn’t really any different. It seems to think it’s just as “entitled” to my vote. This time round, I’ll be voting for someone who shows they’re interested in actually doing something.
You’d think Parramatta was under threat given the $2.6bn set piece reannouncement this morning.
That said, I personally don’t think the Liberal Party have ever had a vote high enough to hold the seat of Parramatta on the new federal boundaries.
The timing of the rail link announcement (while welcome) feels like the sort of thing you’d pull out when things are going against you, especially given the synicism of the local area to these promises.
Owens is safe. The Lib this time round has got himself in some trouble. I suspect the Parramatta line was something that was going to be announced for a while (it is needed, and welcomed), but they just put it off for a couple of months for the campaign.
Demonstrating a commitment to public transport can help outside the directly effected electorates too.
“Demonstrating a commitment to public transport can help outside the directly effected electorates too”
Or it could just remind them how many times it’s been promised and unpromised by the NSW govt……
I’d say this is all about trying to sure up Lindsay, Greenway and potentially try to save Bennelong, in which I believe Labor polling is not too good.
I have also met the Liberal Candidate I think he is very genuine, I am sick of career polies and union hacks who’s greatest interest seems to be themselves and the union’s strength and not the nation. This guy seems like a regular family man and he seems decent.
I have also heard Owens is going to quit soon after being elected. She runs dead in Parramatta and is a useless local member, in my view she is an accidental MP never expecting to beat Cameron and she appears very uncomfortable in the job. Parramatta deserves better in my view.
To get a pension I think you have to win twice and stand again, if Owens wins expect a by-election and Labor loss.
The educated people on this forum may be surprised that I will stick up for Julie Owens given how I lean, however being a major admirer of hard work in all walks of life, I feel strongly inclined to say the last post was a piece of garbage. Firstly I am fairy sure you have to win three times AND stand again, so she must see out this term, so there will be no by-election. Why do you think Johnson is humiliatng himself in Ryan? Secondly, no seasoned campaigner from any side of politics has been anything but impressed by Owens performance in Parramatta. Okay Cameron helped a bit in 04′, but her win came against a massive tide in Western Sydney (see Greenway) and from door knocking half of the electorate. Owens single handedly turned Northmead and Winston Hills from true believer Liberal territory to marginal. 2007 was the pièce de résistance of course. The redistrubition was good reward for her and you can’t honestly say having selected a candidate six weeks out that the other side is running dead?
My prediction: Seems like a big margin for Labor, so maybe a 3% swing to Libs.