LIB 9.5%
Incumbent MP
Ben Morton, since 2016.
- Geography
- Redistribution
- History
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2019 results
- Booth breakdown
- Results maps
Geography
Southern Perth. Tangney includes a number of suburbs on the southern shore of the Swan River and Canning River. Tangney covers most of Melville council area and parts of Canning and Gosnells council areas. Suburbs include Alfred Cove, Attadale, Melville, Applecross, Mount Pleasant, Winthrop, Leeming, Willetton, Wilson, Canning Vale, Bicton, Willagee, Ferndale, Rossmoyne and Shelley.
Redistribution
Tangney expanded on its eastern boundary, taking in Wilson from Swan and Canning Vale from Burt. This reduced the Liberal margin from 11.5% to 9.5%.
History
Tangney was created at the 1974 redistribution. The Liberal Party has dominated the seat, winning Tangney at all but two elections.
Tangney was first won in 1974 by 27-year-old John Dawkins, running for the ALP. Dawkins only held the seat for one term, losing it in 1975. Dawkins later won the seat of Fremantle in 1977 and served as a cabinet minister in the Hawke government and then Treasurer in the Keating government until his retirement in 1993.
The Liberal Party’s Peter Richardson won Tangney in 1975. Richardson left the Liberal Party in 1977 and joined the minor Progress Party, a libertarian pro-market party founded by John Singleton. He ran for the Senate in 1977, but failed to win a seat.
Tangney was won in 1977 by Liberal candidate Peter Shack. He held the seat until 1983, when he lost the seat to the ALP’s George Gear. Gear only held the seat for one term, before transferring to Canning in 1984. He later served as Assistant Treasurer from 1993 to 1996, and lost Canning at the 1996 election.
In 1984, Tangney was won back by Peter Shack, after a major redistribution shifted Tangney into much safer Liberal territory. He held it for the next decade, before retiring in 1993.
Tangney was won in 1993 by barrister Daryl Williams, also from the Liberal Party. Williams was appointed Attorney-General upon the election of the Howard government in 1996. He served in the role until 2003, when he became Minister for Communications. He retired from Parliament in 2004.
In 2004, Tangney was won by Dennis Jensen. He is a prominent climate change skeptic, and was often the loudest voice criticising action on climate change in the Parliament. Dennis Jensen was re-elected three times, but before two of those elections, in 2006 and 2010, the local branch denied him preselection before he was given preselection by the state executive.
Jensen was finally defeated for preselection in 2016, and ran for Tangney as an independent. He came fourth, with Liberal candidate Ben Morton winning comfortably. Morton was re-elected in 2019.
Assessment
Tangney is a safe Liberal seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Ben Morton | Liberal | 44,740 | 53.6 | +4.8 | 51.3 |
| Marion Boswell | Labor | 21,644 | 25.9 | +2.4 | 27.9 |
| Martin Spencer | Greens | 9,319 | 11.2 | -1.2 | 10.9 |
| Scott Rodney Rafferty | One Nation | 1,732 | 2.1 | +2.1 | 2.4 |
| Mark Staer | Australian Christians | 1,695 | 2.0 | -1.3 | 2.3 |
| Jillian Horton | Independent | 1,933 | 2.3 | +2.3 | 1.9 |
| Chris Fernandez | United Australia Party | 969 | 1.2 | +1.2 | 1.3 |
| Gavin Waugh | Western Australia Party | 1,080 | 1.3 | +1.3 | 1.2 |
| Paul Stephen Waddy | Independent | 307 | 0.4 | +0.4 | 0.3 |
| Others | 0.5 | ||||
| Informal | 3,831 | 4.4 | +1.8 |
2019 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Ben Morton | Liberal | 51,275 | 61.5 | +0.4 | 59.5 |
| Marion Boswell | Labor | 32,144 | 38.5 | -0.4 | 40.5 |
Booths have been divided into three parts. Polling places in Melville council area have been split into “west” and “west central”, while those in the Canning and Gosnells council area have been split into “east” and “east central”.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all four areas, ranging from 53.1% in the east to 62.2% in the west.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 9.2% in the east to 12.6% in the west.
| Voter group | GRN prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| West | 12.6 | 62.2 | 20,020 | 19.4 |
| East Central | 11.0 | 56.0 | 19,405 | 18.8 |
| West Central | 11.0 | 61.3 | 16,540 | 16.0 |
| East | 9.2 | 53.1 | 10,931 | 10.6 |
| Pre-poll | 10.0 | 61.7 | 19,156 | 18.6 |
| Other votes | 10.7 | 60.4 | 17,093 | 16.6 |
Election results in Tangney at the 2019 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.
@James I know the news says that he’s quit for family reasons but is there a possibility that he was pushed by the federal executive given his hawkish views (which plays well with Dutton no doubt, but not with the constituents) and that they might get a more amenable candidate like Howard Ong who’s Asian and appeals to the electorate more.
I still think Sam Lim’s got a good chance to hold on here, particularly if he’s built a profile as an MP who got things done, redistribution or not. He gives the vibes that he’s the type of candidate that is very likely to build a personal vote which could withstand any minor swings away from their party and still hold on (like Shayne Neumann in Blair and Warren Entsch in Leichhardt, vastly different seats but still).
Sam Lim is possibly the most likeable member of parliament. He’s a very humble, gentle, and friendly guy. I’m not convinced that’ll save him in the next federal election, but it’s something.
Remwmber these polls arent always guaranteed to reflect the elextion outcomw. And that the aeats on vic wa and nsw are subjwct to redistribution. Although I predict spme like Moore Robertson will remain unchanged
all tangey needs to do is lose Bicton along the Stock Road to Fremantle and its back t quota. thats precisely what ive suggested in my revised proposal based on the new numbers
Howard Ong has been endorsed as Lib candidate. He will give Sam Lim a run for his money but Sam Lim is very likely to develop a personal vote and the earlier debacle with Mark Wales will benefit him, it’s just whether that is enough to compensate for a WA correction swing.
No need to toot my own horn but I called it. Howard Ong today was announced as the new Liberal candidate for Tangney 😀
This sets this contest to be the second where both major party candidates are of Asian and ethnic Chinese ancestry in Australia’s history, after Chisholm in 2019.