Orange – NSW 2019

SFF 0.1% vs NAT

Incumbent MP
Philip Donato, since 2016.

Geography
Central west NSW. Orange covers the entirety of the Orange, Cabonne, Forbes and Parkes council areas, with the main centres being in the cities of Orange, Forbes and Parkes.

History
The seat of Orange has existed in the Legislative Assembly since 1859, with the exception of three elections in the 1920s. The seat was a single-member district up to 1880, then a two-member district from 1880 to 1894.

The seat has been a single-member district since 1894. The seat was held by the Country/National Party from 1947 until 2016.

Orange was held from 1941 to 1947 by the ALP’s Robert O’Halloran. He had been one of the members for the district of Eastern Suburbs from 1920 to 1927, but he fell out with Labor leader and Premier Jack Lang, and at the 1927 election he was denied preselection for any of the new single-member districts that replaced Eastern Suburbs.

He held Orange from 1941 to 1947, when he lost to the Country Party’s Charles Cutler.

Cutler was elected Country Party deputy leader in 1958 and leader in 1959. He held that role until his retirement in 1975. He also served as Deputy Premier in the Coalition government from 1965 to 1975.

Cutler’s retirement in 1975 caused a by-election in early 1976. The by-election was won by National Country Party candidate Garry West. He served as a minister in the Coalition government from 1988 to 1995. Following the government’s defeat, he resigned from Parliament in early 1996.

The 1996 by-election was won by Russell Turner, also of the National Party. Turner was re-elected in 1999, 2003 and 2007.

Turner retired in 2011, and the seat was won by Nationals candidate Andrew Gee. Gee was re-elected in 2015, and stepped down in 2016 to run (successfully) for the federal seat of Calare.

The subsequent by-election was narrowly won by Philip Donato, the candidate of the Shooters, Fishers & Farmers party.

Candidates

• Garry McMahon (Conservatives)
• Kate Hazelton (Nationals)
• Maurice Davey (Christian Democrats)
• Terri Baxter (Independent)
• David O’Brien (Keep Sydney Open)
• Luke Sanger (Labor)
• Stephen Nugent (Greens)
• Stephen Bisgrove (Liberal Democrats)
• Philip Donato (Shooters, Fishers & Farmers)

Assessment
The Shooters won Orange by a very slim margin at the 2016 by-election. This seat could either stay with the Shooters or go back to the Nationals.

2015 result

2015 two-party-preferred result

2016 by-election result

2016 by-election two-candidate-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Orange have been split into four parts, along the lines of the four local government areas: Cabonne, Forbes, Orange and Parkes. The Cabonne and Orange council areas have been marked for amalgamation in the near future – Orange covers the urban parts of the new council, with Cabonne covering the rural surrounding areas.

The Nationals won a large majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas at the 2015 election, ranging from 68.3% in Orange to 78.6% in Cabonne.

The result was much closer at the 2016 by-election. The Shooters won a majority of the two-candidate-preferred vote in Orange (55.8%) and Cabonne (64.3%), while the Nationals won 56.5% in Parkes and 61% in Forbes.

Labor’s primary vote at the by-election ranged from 16% in Cabonne to 20.8% in Orange.

2015 booth breakdown

2016 by-election booth breakdown

Two-party-preferred votes in Orange at the 2015 NSW state election

Election results at the 2016 Orange by-election
Toggle between two-candidate-preferred (Shooters vs Nationals) votes and Labor primary votes.

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