ALP 3.3%
Incumbent MP
Phil Costa, since 2007.
Geography
Wollondilly covers the entirety of Wollondilly Shire, as well as a number of suburbs in southern Campbelltown, including Ambarvale, Rosemeadow, St Helens Park, Glen Alpine and Bradbury.
History
The current electoral district was only created for the most recent election in 2007. A previous electoral district with the name of Wollondilly existed from 1904 to 1981.
The seat existed from 1904 to 1981 covering areas between Campbelltown and Bowral, varying at each redistribution. From 1920 to 1925 the district expanded to be a three-member district elected proportionally. This district, while named Wollondilly, it stretched to the coast, covering Wollongong and surrounding areas.
From 1904 to 1978, the single-member district of Wollondilly was always won by the main conservative party, eventually becoming the Liberal Party.
The seat was won in 1957 by the Liberal Party’s Tom Lewis. He became a minister when the Coalition won power in 1965 led by Robert Askin. Lewis became Premier in early 1975 following Askin’s retirement. He only lasted a year, and was replaced in January 1976 by Eric Willis. The Liberals lost power at the 1976 election, and Lewis retired in 1978.
Wollondilly was gained by the ALP’s Bill Knott in 1978. In 1981, Wollondilly was abolished, with much of the seat’s territory forming part of the new seat of Camden. Knott moved to the new seat of Kiama, and held it until his retirement in 1986.
The seat of Wollondilly was restored as part of the redistribution before the 2007 election as a marginal Labor seat with a 4.6% margin, out of pieces of Camden, a marginal Labor seat, and Southern Highlands, a safer Liberal seat.
The seat was won in 2007 by ALP candidate Phil Costa. Costa was the Mayor of Wollondilly Shire, who had been elected to council as an independent with no links to either major party. He originally threatened to stand as an independent if either party preselected a candidate from the Campbelltown part of the seat, but was persuaded to stand for the ALP. Following his preselection announcement Wollondilly Council passed a motion of no confidence, but he refused to resign, and won the seat with a swing of only 1.3% against the ALP.
Candidates
- Clinton Mead (Outdoor Recreation Party)
- Chris Dalton (Christian Democratic Party)
- Judy Hannan (Independent)
- Jai Rowell (Liberal)
- Jess Di Blasio (Greens)
- Phil Costa (Labor)
Political situation
Wollondilly is a very marginal seat and will probably fall to the Liberal Party. Hannan will probably poll strongly in Wollondilly, but will struggle to pull any votes in the City of Campbelltown, which makes up about 40% of the seat.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Phil Costa | ALP | 18,652 | 44.3 | -2.4 |
| Sharryn Hilton | LIB | 16,524 | 39.2 | -0.3 |
| Danny Stewart | IND | 3,069 | 7.3 | +7.3 |
| Geraldine Hunt | GRN | 2,931 | 7.0 | +0.9 |
| Maurice Nelmes | IND | 926 | 2.2 | +2.2 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Phil Costa | ALP | 20,803 | 53.3 | -1.3 |
| Sharryn Hilton | LIB | 18,226 | 46.7 | +1.3 |
Booth breakdown
The seat of Wollondilly includes a small part of Campbelltown and all of Wollondilly Shire. While the Shire makes up a vast majority of the seat’s land area, over 40% of the voting population live in the City of Campbelltown.
Booths in Campbelltown have been grouped together, and booths in Wollondilly have been divided between South (covering Picton, Appin, Bargo, Douglas Park and Menangle) and North (covering Cawdor, Mount Hunter, Oakdale, Silverdale and the Oaks).
The ALP polled over 60% in Campbelltown, a slim 51% majority in the south, and less than 43% in the north of the seat. The Greens polled over 7% in Campbelltown and the south, but 4.6% in the north. Independent candidate Danny Stewart polled a similar amount to the Greens across the seat, but this varied from almost 10% in the south to 5.7% in Campbelltown.
| Voter group | GRN % | IND % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Campbelltown | 7.2 | 5.7 | 60.6 | 14,306 | 34.0 |
| South | 7.3 | 9.8 | 51.0 | 13,237 | 31.4 |
| North | 4.6 | 7.8 | 42.8 | 7,461 | 17.7 |
| Other votes | 8.3 | 5.3 | 53.1 | 7,098 | 16.9 |
I hope Phil’s got another job lined up.
Before Parliament he was a school principal in the North at the booth with the big blue 52… probably had enough name recognition and respect to keep that blue number below 60, though I don’t think that job is available anymore.
Anyone know if Hannan has announced where she’ll be directing preferences yet?
Interesting that Hannan was a senior National until recently
My prediction – Barring a freak upset from Judy Hannan, Liberal gain, 20% swing
Will be good to see Phil out the door.
He has overseen the running of Corrective services and despite being informed several times by numerous individuals of bullying, harassment, intimidation, abuse of power and alleged corruption within CSNSW he has chosen to ignore this.
The state needs politicians who will listen and take note of what they are being told by the people that put them there and not assume that it is just grumblings from persons that he is told has a axe to grind with his Administration .
I’d be very suprised if the Liberal candidate failed to receive 50% of the primary vote.
As the author of this website indicates, Hannan will struggle to pull any votes within suburbs located within the Campbelltown LGA, which makes up roughly 40% of the seat. I don’t think she has any realistic chance of victory.
Matt, hasn’t there been speculation in the past about whether the Nats would run in Wollondilly? Perhaps she is unhappy with the “no three cornered contests” policy or is positioning herself in the event of a redistribution.
Given that she has run for the Liberal Party in Auburn and Granville, Judy Hannan is hardly a Nat by conscience.
She did however find that almost no-one in the Lib branches would back her in Wollondilly last time…
Costa is actually one of the few ALP members who has some ability, and is willing to do something to stand up for \what he thinks is right. I think Kennelly’s mistakes shows that Costa was right in the first place.
He will be one of the few sad losses for the ALP on election night
If Costa is an example of ability then it shows how low stocks have fallen in public adminstration.
Costa is running under the ‘Country Labor’ banner. WTF? Even most of their candidates in truer ‘country’ seats have abandoned that.
The decision to run under the Country Labor banner is bizarre in this electorate where almost half is located in outer metropolitan Sydney.
I have been trying to get this state government to fund a non-drug residential service for children with mental health and/or behavioural problems for over a year, and they are not interested. I told them there is no residential facility for children under 12 yrs in this state, that children are being treated with adult psychiatric medication when it is not proven safe for children and has been associated with deaths overseas. The departments of Health, DOCS and the Department of Youth have all said no. Local member, Phil Costa, who claims to care about disadvantaged children, has not advocated on this issue either. What could be more important? Surely not 5 million spent on a racetrack, or 3 million a week looking after the refugees from other countries. This government deserves to go.