ALP 28.7%
Incumbent MP
Barbara Perry, since 2001.
Geography
Western Sydney. The seat of Auburn covers all of Auburn local government area and parts of the neighbouring Strathfield and Bankstown local government areas. It includes the suburbs of Auburn, Silverwater, Lidcombe, Berala, Rookwood, Chullora, Regents Park and Birrong.
History
Auburn was first created at the 1927 election. The seat has always been held by either the Labor Party, or by members of the Lang family representing one of a number of breakaway Lang Labor parties.
The seat was first won in 1927 by the defeated premier, Jack Lang. Lang had held the seat of Granville from 1913 to 1920, when he won one of the seats for the district of Parramatta. He became Premier following the 1925 election.
At the 1927 election, proportional representation was replaced by single-member districts, and Auburn was created. Lang won the seat, but lost power.
Lang held Auburn continuously for almost twenty years. He served again as Premier from 1930 to 1932, when he was sacked by the governor and lost the following election. He led a breakaway party from the ALP from 1940 to 1941 and again in 1943.
Lang resigned from Auburn in 1946, and won the federal seat of Reid. He held the seat until 1949, when he lost an attempt at re-election in the new seat of Blaxland.
Jack Lang’s son, James, won the seat of Auburn at a 1946 by-election. He won re-election in 1947, but lost in 1950 following a redistribution.
The rural seat of Ashburnham had been abolished at the redistribution, and the Labor member for the seat, Edgar Dring, moved to Auburn after serving in Ashburnham since 1941. Dring held Auburn until his death in 1955.
Auburn was won in 1956 by the ALP’s Thomas Ryan. A former Langite, he had returned to the ALP in protest at the preselection of the younger Lang to replace his father. He held the seat until 1965, when he lost preselection.
Peter Cox replaced Ryan in 1965. He served as a minister in the Labor state government from 1976 to 1988. He retired in 1988, and the ALP lost badly in the polls.
Peter Nagle retained Auburn for the ALP in 1988. He held it until his retirement in 2001. The 2001 by-election was won by Barbara Perry. She has served as a minister since the 2007 state election.
Candidates
- Raema Walker (Christian Democratic Party)
- Jamal Daoud (Independent)
- Ned Attie (Liberal)
- Barbara Perry (Labor)
- Carolyn Kennett (Independent)
- Salimm Mehajer (Independent)
- Michael Kiddle (Greens)
Political situation
Auburn is a very safe Labor seat.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Barbara Perry | ALP | 24,314 | 60.3 | +0.7 |
| George Pierides | LIB | 5,771 | 14.3 | -2.4 |
| Jack Au | UNI | 3,866 | 9.6 | +2.4 |
| Malikeh Michaels | GRN | 1,621 | 4.0 | -4.3 |
| Allan Lotfizadeh | CDP | 1,582 | 3.9 | +1.1 |
| Mamdouh Habib | IND | 1,554 | 3.9 | +3.9 |
| Silma Ihram | DEM | 1,087 | 2.7 | +1.3 |
| Bob Vinnicombe | IND | 536 | 1.3 | +1.3 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Barbara Perry | ALP | 27,095 | 78.8 | +2.3 |
| George Pierides | LIB | 7,312 | 21.2 | -2.3 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Auburn have been divided into three areas: central, north and south.
The ALP polled around 80% in the centre and north of the seat, and 76% in the south. The Unity Party, who outpolled all other minor parties, polled around 11% in the north and centre, and under 5% in the south.
| Voter group | Unity % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 11.2 | 80.5 | 16,418 | 40.7 |
| North | 11.1 | 79.6 | 9,761 | 24.2 |
| South | 4.7 | 76.1 | 7,075 | 17.5 |
| Other votes | 8.5 | 76.9 | 7,077 | 17.5 |
Gee, you can really see the difference between Homebush Bay/Newington and the rest of the seat.
How funny. A 2PP of 88% in a major booth! It’s almost communism.
DB, a booth in Wollongong recorded 93%, now that’s communism.
I’d expect both Liberal and Unity to improve the votes here (not that it really matters). Unity almost outpolled the ALP in Auburn Council elections in 2008, and the area has 5000+ new voters, and has had 2-3 reasonable sized developments.
But Unity’s pretty much not existent these days….they really only focus on local government. Can’t see them getting higher than 5%.
its about time the people of Auburn made this seat marginal instead of safe. That means more funding for the area. Let me know if anyone wants too help in this endeavor.
According to this website, the Social Justice Network is backing candidate Jamal Daoud here.
Another candidate listed elsewhere is Raema Walker for the CDP.
My prediction: Labor retain, 10-15% swing to Liberals.
Prediction: Labor retain, 10% swing to Liberals. Given this seat is pretty similar to Lakemba, which didn’t record that big of a swing despite the retiring MP being the Premier, the swing won’t be as high as elsewhere.
Every super-safe ALP seat that doesn’t swing means more swings in other more contentious seats.
The overlapping booths in Reid (federal) swung by 15% in August. I would expect it to be closer to this range, particularly given the new developments in the East and North East of the seat.
The two other candidates here are Carolyn Kennett from the unregistered Socialist Equality Party, and another independent, Salim Mehajer, who has this Facebook page.
Carolyn Kennett is not officially an ‘independent’ candidate. I’m sorry Ben, but I have to take issue with this. There have been many debates over the years about people claiming to be ‘independent’ when they are not, and hence issues surrounding the use or otherwise of the term ‘independent’ by a candidate on the ballot paper are quite important. I don’t think you should use the word ‘independent’ unless the candidate has officially opted to use that word with the NSWEC.
How the hell would you describe a candidate who is not endorsed by a political party except as an ‘independent’?
If a candidate is running without the support of a party they are an independent, whether they wish to have it on the ballot.
Nick C – while they are endorsed by a party (the SEP in this case), the party isn’t registered, so for the purposes of the Act doesn’t exist. That’s why they can have a blank space. But they’d be commonly called an “Independent” because they’re not endorsed by a registered party. The CEC at various times runs candidates at state levels as Independents if the party isn’t registered in that state. John Hatton has a bit of an organisation going, but he’s classed as an Independent, so where do you draw the line?
My opinion would be that where to draw the line in posting a list of candidates would be to list them as they have officially been listed – blank if they’ve chosen not to identify themselves as independent for whatever reason, in most cases because they freely acknowledge that they belong to an unregistered party.
Anyway, leave it to the candidates to complain if they wish. My opinion comes from having been involved in local government campaigns where candidates relying on the backing of a major party have falsely claimed to be ‘independent’ in an intentional effort to mislead voters, hence I prefer to see the candidates identified however they have officially chosen to be identified, so that if people are choosing not to call themselves ‘independent’, for whatever reason, that is being respected.
That’s my opinion, but obviously people will use the term ‘independent’ by default anyway.