Hawkesbury – NSW 2011

LIB 6.0% vs IND

Incumbent MP
Ray Williams, since 2007.

Geography
North-western fringe of Sydney. The seat covers northern parts of the Hawkesbury, Hills and Hornsby local government areas. Despite the name, a majority of the seat’s population is in the Hills Shire. The seat covers Dural, Kellyville, Rouse Hill, Kurrajong, Maroota, Wisemans Ferry, Pitt Town and Wilberforce. The towns of Richmond and Windsor are not contained in the seat.

History
Hawkesbury has existed since 1859. Except for the 1940s, when it was held by Labor, the seat has been won by the Liberal Party and its predecessors since 1927.

The original district of Hawkesbury elected two MLAs from 1859 to 1880. It became a single-member district in 1880. As parties developed in the late 19th century, Hawkesbury was dominated by Free Traders. It was then held by the early Liberal Reform party, but was won by an independent in 1917.

In 1920, it was merged with other seats to form the three-member Cumberland district.

Hawkesbury was restored in 1927, and won by Nationalist Bruce Walker, who had been one of the Members for Cumberland since 1920.

Walker retired at the 1932 election, and was succeeded by his son Ronald Walker, who won as a United Australia Party candidate.

The younger Walker retired in 1941, and the seat was won by the ALP’s Frank Finnan by only 130 votes.

Finnan became a minister in 1947. In 1950, a redistribution made Hawkesbury solidly conservative, and Finnan won the new inner-city seat of Darlinghurst. He served as a minister until 1953, when Darlinghurst was abolished, and he retired.

Bernie Deane won Hawkesbury for the Liberal Party in 1950. He held the seat throughout the 1950s and 1960s as a backbencher. He retired in late 1972.

The by-election was held in early 1973, and was won by Liberal candidate Kevin Rozzoli. He held the seat throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. He was Speaker of the Legislative Assembly from 1988 to 1995.

In 2003, Rozzoli intended to run for another term, but he was challenged for preselection by former Hornsby Shire president Steven Pringle. Pringle’s preselection was controversial, creating deep animosity in the local Liberal Party.

In 2006, Pringle faced his own preselection challenge from Baulkham Hills Shire councillor Ray Williams. Williams defeated Pringle in late 2006. Pringle resigned from the Liberal Party, and contested Hawkesbury as an independent. Williams won the seat with 56% of the two-candidate-preferred vote.

Candidates

Political situation
The strange contest in 2007 between a sitting Liberal-turned-Independent and the official Liberal candidate was the only thing that made Hawkesbury at all marginal. In 2011, without a strong independent candidate, Williams should retain the seat with ease.

2007 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Ray Williams LIB 19,611 45.6 -1.6
Steven Pringle IND 11,661 27.1 +27.1
Alicia McCosker ALP 6,872 16.0 -6.9
Jocelyn Howden GRN 2,785 6.5 +0.1
Gregg Pringle AAFI 2,069 4.8 +3.1

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Ray Williams LIB 20,402 56.0
Steven Pringle IND 16,012 44.0

Booth breakdown
Booths in Hawkesbury have been divided into five areas: Kurrajong and Pitt Town in Hawkesbury council area, and Dural, Kellyville and Maroota in Hills Shire. Dural and Maroota each also contain a single booth in Hornsby Shire.

Liberal candidate Ray Williams won the two-candidate-preferred vote over independent candidate Steven Pringle in four out of five areas, with his vote varying from over 60% in Dural to just under 54% in Maroota. Pringle won over 57% in Kurrajong.

The ALP polled over 20% in only one area, with a 20.7% vote in Kellyville.

Polling booths in Hawkesbury at th e2007 state election. Dural in green, Kellyville in yellow, Kurrajong in red, Maroota in blue, Pitt Town in orange.
Voter group ALP % LIB 2CP % Total votes % of votes
Kellyville 20.7 57.5 13,586 31.6
Dural 10.7 60.7 7,929 18.4
Pitt Town 12.9 56.8 5,938 13.8
Kurrajong 17.0 42.4 4,660 10.8
Maroota 10.8 53.9 2,669 6.2
Other votes 16.6 60.1 8,216 19.1
Two-party-preferred votes in Hawkesbury at the 2007 state election.
Labor primary votes in Hawkesbury at the 2007 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Kellyville and Dural at the 2007 state election.
Labor primary votes in Kellyville and Dural at the 2007 state election.

15 COMMENTS

  1. Kevin Rozzoli apparently didn’t bother with a local electorate office for most if not all of his term. This area has changed from farming fringe to mega wealthy since 1970s. I think in 40s it went up into central coast.

  4. Rozzoli was a lazy git but he did have a legit reason for not having an office in the electorate. The simple fact is that there are NO centres of any consequence within the boundaries with residents having to travel outside the electorate for any real shopping or to access govt services.

    Ray Williams is a complete nong who’s lucked his way into a sinecure for life …. or until he P’s off a factional warlord or gets “stacked out”. I strongly recall his canditature for Riverstone in 2003 where he paraded around like a showpony …. for the impact of a swing of less than 1% !!

  5. I live in the Hawkesbury electorate (although, not for my entire life, thank god), and this is such a Liberal seat that you could run a preying mantis, and the Labor Party would still come second. In regards to Williams, I totally concur with the comments made above. So bad, is he, that he once sent the electorate a brochure with an overcrowded train from India on the front, and comparing CityRail with this. He tends to argue with emotion, rather than reason, which is okay for the bloke down the pub, or the bus depot (Williams is a former bus driver), but is not so good for an MP representing the electorate, although I dare say the electors of Hawkesbury tend not to care too much. He lost me after that.

    I’ve always had the feeling that he would much rather have preferred to be the Member for Riverstone, rather than the member for Hawkesbury, such was his obsession with being the Minister for Aquilina-bashing! I wonder who he will bash now, that Aquilina’s gone. He’s pretty safe in Hawkesbury, nonetheless, having a reasonably strong local profile thanks to his continued whinging to Alan Jones and the Rouse Hill Times. Factionally, I think he is part of Hawke’s mob. I haven’t seen a sign for any candidate in this electorate, yet.

    The Labor candidate is even worse, mind you, which is not a surprise for a seat like this. Having lived in the Liverpool and Fairfield LGA’s previously, this was the case with the Liberal candidates, as well. Overall, this is such a snoozefest, you have to wonder why the Rouse Hill Times bothered to run two pages worth of coverage on the campaign. A swing to the Liberals.

  6. Dear DLH

    When are you going to move back to Liverpool or Fairfield? I’m sure you’ll feel more comfortable. It would seem you are not happy with any candidate or party, so maybe try the Greens who will happily put you to “sleep” and you won’t even notice.

  7. Roger Ramjet – funny post, I must say. I actually thought my comments regarding Hawkesbury were fair, although I’d understand if you were a resident of Hawkesbury and took exception to my comments in brackets at the beginning.

  8. i have lived in this electorate all of my life so i have seen the advances or lack of in the area. why is it people in the electorate have the opinion labor do nothing for the area why should they no one votes for them the liberals when there in power they don’t do a bloody thing either because it’s safe if you want changes vote for an independant that will standup for the area

  9. For those looking to pre-poll in Hawkesbury, the office is in the Rouse Hill Town Centre. Look for the Liberal signs. No signs at all from the ALP. According to sources, no Labor signs have been seen at all in the electorate. I’ve done my vote today, as I’ll be at the Formula 1 on election day.

  10. I’ve seen a few signs for Ray Williams at the small caryard/rental business on the corner of Windsor and Acres Road, Kellyville. Much less signs for this business than there was for Alex Hawke at the Federal Election. Other than that, quiet as a church mouse.

  11. Finally saw a Wicks sign outside the pre-poll office in Rouse Hill this morning. There are a couple of Keneally signs out there as well.

  12. I think it would be logical to include the towns of Richmond & Windsor in this seat
    maybe dural etc in the hills area should be else where

  13. Agree with you, Mick, on including Windsor and Richmond in Hawkesbury. Why those two suburbs are in Riverstone is mind-boggling. I would move Kellyville and Dural into Castle Hill, while leaving Rouse Hill and Beaumont Hills in Hawkesbury, if I was drawing the boundaries.

  15. Labor’s vote did increase here, but that was due to the absence of Pringle than anything else. Other than that, Williams has no real room for improvement. It was a very convincing victory.

    Time to continue to dream about a Labor member for Hawkesbury, much like what I used to do for the seat of Smithfield, about a Liberal member!

Comments are closed.