LIB 8.8%
Incumbent MP
Nathan Rees, Member for Toongabbie since 2007.
Geography
North-western Sydney. Most of Seven Hills is contained in the Blacktown and Parramatta council areas, along with a small part of the Hills shire. Seven Hills covers the suburbs of Constitution Hill, Kings Langley, Northmead, Seven Hills, Toongabbie, Winston Hills and parts of Lalor Park, Wentworthville and Westmead.
Redistribution
Seven Hills is a new name for the seat of Toongabbie, which shifted north-east, losing Girraween and Prospect to Prospect, and losing parts of Lalor Park to Blacktown. In exchange, Seven Hills gained parts of Wentworthville and Westmead from Parramatta and Northmead and Winston Hills from Baulkham Hills. These changes replaced Labor-voting areas with Liberal-voting areas, flipping the seat’s margin from 0.3% for Labor to 8.8% for the Liberal Party.
History
The electoral district was first created for the 2007 election. It largely replaced the abolished seat of Wentworthville, which had existed from 1962 to 1991 and again from 1999 to 2007.
The first seat of Wentworthville was won in 1962 by Ernie Quinn. He held the seat for the ALP until his retirement in 1988.
Wentworthville was won in 1988 by ALP candidate Pam Allan. Wentworthville was abolished in 1991, and she shifted to the seat of Blacktown. She served as Minister for the Environment in the first term of the Carr government from 1995 to 1999, before returning to the backbench.
In 1999, Wentworthville was restored, and Allan moved back to the seat. She held it until her retirement in 2007.
The newly-created seat of Toongabbie was won in 2007 by Nathan Rees, a former advisor to Premier Morris Iemma. He was immediately appointed to the ministry following the 2007 election.
In 2008, Morris Iemma resigned under pressure from party powerbrokers, and the party elected Rees as their leader and Premier.
He served as Premier for only 15 months, before he was voted out by the ALP caucus in December 2009. Rees was re-elected in 2011 by a slim 0.3% margin.
Candidates
Sitting Labor MP for Toongabbie Nathan Rees is not running for re-election.
- Balaji Naranapatti (Greens)
- Jennifer Sheahan (No Land Tax)
- Mark Taylor (Liberal)
- Brendon Prentice (Christian Democratic Party)
- Indira Devi (Independent)
- Susai Benjamin (Labor)
- Leonard Brown (Independent)
Assessment
Seven Hills is much more friendly for the Liberal Party than the old seat of Toongabbie. Despite that change, the seat’s 8.8% margin is certainly vulnerable to a relatively modest swing back to Labor. If current polling is correct, Seven Hills is likely to be very close.
2011 election result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Nathan Rees | Labor | 18,340 | 41.2 | -10.5 | 31.3 |
| Kirsty Lloyd | Liberal | 17,889 | 40.2 | +12.6 | 50.0 |
| Len Hobbs | Greens | 2,367 | 5.3 | -1.5 | 7.8 |
| Peter Johnson | Shooters and Fishers | 2,346 | 5.3 | +5.3 | 3.1 |
| Brendon Prentice | Christian Democrats | 2,016 | 4.5 | -3.4 | 4.9 |
| Michele Read | Independent | 942 | 2.1 | +2.1 | 1.2 |
| Ashok Kumar | Independent | 624 | 1.4 | +1.4 | 0.7 |
| Others | 0.9 |
2011 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Nathan Rees | Labor | 19,989 | 50.3 | -14.2 | 41.2 |
| Kirsty Lloyd | Liberal | 19,784 | 49.7 | +14.2 | 58.8 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Seven Hills have been split into three parts: north-east, south-east and west. The ‘west’ area covers all of those booths in the City of Blacktown.
The Liberal Party won a modest majority of the two-party-preferred vote in the south-east (54%) and the west (55%), and a much larger 73% majority in the north-east.
The Greens vote ranged from 5.4% in the west to 12.3% in the north-east.
| Voter group | LIB 2PP % | GRN % | Total votes | % of votes |
| West | 55.2 | 5.4 | 11,729 | 37073.4 |
| South-East | 54.2 | 6.0 | 11,647 | 36814.2 |
| North-East | 73.3 | 12.3 | 10,775 | 34057.9 |
| Other votes | 60.9 | 8.1 | 12,465 | 39399.8 |
A brand new marginal seat. Labor has preselected an, erm, interesting candidate here.
One to watch.
“Interesting” is certainly the word. A google search for Susai Benjamin turns up some strange stories………..
Going with the consensus here, This new seat, with two distinct ends, is another one to watch. If Labor win this, expect them to be winning most of the other nail-biter seats.
There was a Seven Hills electorate from 1981 to 1991 safe for ALP
Liberal retain.
Endorsing somebody who condones domestic violence is a major clanger for the ALP. With 2 distinct ends concentrated Liberal strength in The Hills Shire and without Nathan Rees’ personal vote I’d imagine this to be Liberal friendly territory.
I imagine the Libs will be reminding everybody this on election material.
Poor candidate choice.
Calling this a comfortable Liberal Retain. Nathan Rees managed to hold onto Toongabbie by 200 votes last time because of his strong result at Toongabbie Primary School (that big red 55 in the middle of the map).
The Indian community is split on whether to support Susai Benjamin or not. Mark Taylor has a solid profile as a former member of the Blacktown LAC. At this point, advantage Taylor
I predict a narrow Liberal retain here, the domestic violence comments from the Labor candidate will endear him to precisely nubody
Jack mentioned something that hasn’t been mentioned. Nathan Rees had the biggest personal vote of any ALP member in the 2011 election (I think the difference in Toongabbie from 2011 was about 20 PP on average. This would suggest that those booths in the middle would have been a lot closer had it not been for Nathan Rees.
Interesting to note that Susai Benjamin was also active in trying to destabilise Nathan’s campaign in 2011 after losing pre-selection to him. Wonder if that might come back to bite him.
I note that at Luke Foley’s funding announcement at Westmead Hospital a few weeks ago, he was accompanied by the Julia Finn (Granville) and James Shaw (Parramatta). The hospital actually falls within this electorate. Is Labor embarrassed by Benjamin?
My prediction: Possible Liberal win.