Ripon – Victoria 2010

ALP 4.3%

Incumbent MP
 Joe Helper, since 1999.

Geography
 Western Victoria. Ripon covers regional areas west of Ballarat and Bendigo, stretching almost as far as Horsham. It covers Pyrenees council area and parts of Ararat, Ballarat, Central Goldfields, Corangamite, Golden Plains, Hepburn and Northern Grampians council areas. It includes the towns of Ararat, Maryborough, Stawell, Creswick, Avoca, Beaufort, Dunolly, Halls Gap, Kingston, and Skipton.

History
The current Ripon electoral district has existed since 1976. In that form, it was held by the Liberal Party from 1976 to 1999, and by the ALP since then.

The first Ripon district was created in 1945. It was held by the ALP’s Ernie Morton from 1945 to 1947 and again from 1950 to 1955. The Liberal Party’s Rutherford Guthrie held the seat from 1947 to 1950. The original Ripon district was abolished in 1955.

When Ripon was created in 1976, it was first won by Liberal MP Tom Austin, who had held the seat of Hampden since 1972. Hampden was abolished in the 1976 redistribution, and Austin moved to Ripon.

Austin served as a minister in the Liberal state government from 1978 to 1982 and as Deputy Leader of the Opposition from 1985 to 1987. He retired in 1992.

Austin was succeeded by Steve Elder, who had been Liberal Member for Ballarat North from 1988 until the seat’s abolition in 1992. He served as a Parliamentary Secretary in the Kennett government until his defeat at the 1999 election.

Elder was defeated in 1999 by Joe Helper. He was appointed a minister in the Labor state government after the 2006 election.

Candidates

Political situation
Ripon has traditionally been held by the Liberal Party. It will be a very vulnerable ALP seat in 2010.

2006 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Joe Helper ALP 15,461 46.79 -5.65
Vic Dunn LIB 11,650 35.26 +1.32
Robyn Smith NAT 2,811 8.51 +0.73
Steven Morse GRN 1,970 5.96 +1.21
Leanne Rawson FF 1,149 3.48 +3.48

2006 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Joe Helper ALP 17,964 54.35 -3.08
Vic Dunn LIB 15,090 45.65 +3.08

Booth breakdown
Polling booths in Ripon have been divided into six areas. Booths in Central Goldfields, Ararat, Northern Grampians and Pyrenees council areas have been left as single units. Corangamite and Golden Plains council areas have been grouped as “South”, while Ballarat and Hepburn council areas have been grouped as “East”.

The ALP’s two-party-preferred vote varied from 61% in the Ararat area to under 50% in the Northern Grampians, Pyrenees and the East. The ALP won 57% in Central Goldfields, and 54.5% in the south of the seat.

 

Polling booths in Ripon at the 2006 state election. Ararat in orange, Central Goldfields in red, East in blue, Northern Grampians in purple, Pyrenees in green, South in yellow.

 

Voter group GRN % ALP 2CP % Total votes % of votes
Central Goldfields 5.41 57.06 6,323 19.13
Ararat 5.11 61.35 4,494 13.60
Northern Grampians 5.35 49.92 4,207 12.73
South 6.56 54.46 3,658 11.07
Pyrenees 6.00 47.95 3,533 10.69
East 7.78 47.60 3,109 9.41
Other votes 6.22 56.05 7,730 23.39
Two-party-preferred votes in Ripon at the 2006 state election.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Maryborough is one of the poorest towns in Victoria. Remarkable how the 19th century division between the radical goldfields and the conservative country further west continues.

  5. If they’re mailing out PVAs to everyone in Ripon, clearly they’re running a serious campaign with a good warchest. They shouldn’t be written off here.

  6. Country Alliance have their head office in Melbourne, its closely linked to the ‘Field and Game’ association. In the 2006 election they split their preferences ALP LIB 50/50 and then after the election the Field and Game recieved $1m from the Brumby Gov’t for general operational funding, good work if you can get it.

  7. Candidates in ballot paper order are:

    Wendy McIvor – Nationals
    Joe Helper – Labor
    Jesse Boer – Family First
    Vic Dunn – Liberal
    Scott Watts – Country Alliance
    Steve Morse – Greens

  8. You know, I think the CA could attract enough of the vote in this sort of seat to generate preference leakage to allow Helper to hold on again. LAB hold

Comments are closed.