LIB 16.2%
Incumbent MP
Damien Tudehope, since 2015.
Geography
Northern Sydney. Epping mainly covers southern parts of Hornsby Shire, along with small parts of the City of Parramatta and the City of Ryde. It covers the suburbs of Epping, Cherrybrook, Cheltenham, Beecroft and Pennant Hills.
History
The seat of Epping was created at the 1999 election. It has been won by the Liberal Party every election since 1999.
Epping was first won by Andrew Tink in 1999. He had been the Liberal Member for Eastwood since 1988. Eastwood had been a safe Liberal seat in the area since 1950.
Tink held Epping at the 1999 and 2003 elections. He announced his retirement in 2006. Liberal preselection for Epping was won by former prosecutor Greg Smith, who defeated former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward. She went on to win the seat of Goulburn, and Smith won Epping.
Smith was re-elected to a second term in 2011. He served as Attorney-General in the O’Farrell government from 2011 to 2014.
Smith retired at the 2015 election, and Liberal candidate Damien Tudehope won the seat.
Candidates
- Victor Waterson (Independent)
- Samuel Lyndon (Keep Sydney Open)
- Alan Mascarenhas (Labor)
- Dominic Perrottet (Liberal)
- Simon Margan (Greens)
Assessment
Epping is a safe Liberal seat.
2015 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Damien Tudehope | Liberal | 26,917 | 54.3 | -8.4 |
| David Havyatt | Labor | 9,757 | 19.7 | +5.2 |
| Emma Heyde | Greens | 7,001 | 14.1 | +1.9 |
| Kerry Fox | Independent | 3,317 | 6.7 | +6.7 |
| Darryl Allen | Christian Democrats | 1,878 | 3.8 | -0.1 |
| Sophia Kong | No Land Tax | 664 | 1.3 | +1.3 |
| Informal | 1,250 | 2.5 |
2015 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Damien Tudehope | Liberal | 29,201 | 66.2 | -11.3 |
| David Havyatt | Labor | 14,890 | 33.8 | +11.3 |
Booth breakdown
Booths in Epping have been split into three areas: central, north and south.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 59.9% in the south to 72.5% in the north.
The Greens primary vote ranged from 10.6% in the north to 17.2% in the south.
| Voter group | GRN prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 10.6 | 72.5 | 13,838 | 27.9 |
| Central | 17.0 | 63.9 | 11,577 | 23.4 |
| South | 17.2 | 59.9 | 9,016 | 18.2 |
| Other votes | 13.4 | 66.6 | 10,985 | 22.2 |
| Pre-poll | 13.0 | 63.6 | 4,118 | 8.3 |
Election results in Epping at the 2015 NSW state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and Greens primary votes.
Alan Mascarenhas is the Labor candidate for Epping.
http://www.facebook.com/pg/alan4epping/
You wonder why Perrottet didn’t shift to Epping (where he’s apparently always lived) upon Greg Smith’s retirement. It certainly would have saved a lot of hassle.
What’s with Perrottet and switching seats every election?
Nicholas,
The redistribution prior to 2015 redrew a significant chunk of Hawkesbury into Castle Hill. These areas were the power base of sitting Hawkesbury MP Ray Williams. (In 2007, Williams successfully mounted a branch stack against then MP Stephen Pringle.) Williams used that power base to transfer over to Castle Hill, and Perrottet was left with the consolation prize of Hawkesbury.
Clearly unhappy with this arrangement (and perhaps flush with his power as second most powerful cabinet member), Perrottet tried to manoeuvre back into Castle Hill last year, citing the travel time between the electorate and his home.
To avoid the unedifying (and possibly unprecedented) spectacle of two ministers vying for the same seat, a compromise was worked out where Perrottet was handed Epping, the seat in which he lives. Sitting Epping MP Damien Tudehope will transfer to the upper house.
As I stated above, the remaining curiosity is that Epping was an open seat in 2015. One wonders why Perrottet didn’t simply succeed Greg Smith at the last election.
this is another example of the liberals being accident prone……… why would one minister challenge another…. this was going to happen? why couldn’t this have been sorted out privately………. the principle should be. the voters come before the party……… seems to be forgotten
The dumb thing from this is that Perrottet’s support base in the Party had actually shifted across to Epping from the redistribution. He would have been well within his rights to challenge the preselection for Epping back in 2015 and none of this would have been an issue. But, for some stupid reason, Greg Smith was hell bent on getting his son, Nathaniel, preselection and Damien Tudehope was then selected as a compromise.
David Walsh is 100% correct in terms of what happened with that redistribution.
Who on earth draws these boundaries? It looks like a Fetus, the NSW Electoral commission shouldn’t draw disgusting boundaries. As it doesn’t represent the people, And what the Liberal party shouldn’t be doing is shifting seats for members like perrottet’s it shows he doesn’t care about the community, And makes me wonder what his next move will be in time for the 2023/4 election
Electoral boundaries as rorschach test, I guess.
Daniel, can you stop running your mouth like that? It’s one thing to ask the question as to why members move seats like that. It’s another to make a completely incorrect statement without any care.
Perrottet would have been more than entitled to move because he lives right on the border between Epping and Castle Hill (after the redistribution) and, as a result of the redistribution, his branches got moved into Epping.
As I said before, it was dumb that the party didn’t give Perrottet the seat back in 2015 but he is where he should have been before.
The shape is weird but as a former resident of this area, I can see no community-of-interest violation.
Cherrybrook is separated from Hornsby by bushland, so drawing it in Epping makes sense. The rest of the seat is aligned to the rail corridor which I quite like.
Cherrybrook used to be in the abolished seat of The Hills and on community of interest, would make more sense being part of Castle Hill (like much of its neighbor West Pennant Hills). Epping should, for the most part, align along the Main Northern Line rail corridor apart from areas like North Epping. Frankly, I’d be tempted to drag it north and take in much of Thornleigh as well as Westleigh.
Having previous lived in Cherrybrook and attended school in Carlingford (i.e. the opposite ends of the district), I will attest to that this electoral district is ill-conceived. Literally every other neighbouring district – Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill, and Hornsby – it would make more sense for Cherrybrook to be placed in.
Do NSW state redistributions have suggestions, comments, and/or objections like federal ones? The current NSW state boundaries are, on the whole, a disgusting mess.
Those black and yellow DONT VOTE PERROTTET stickers that are everywhere between Kurrajong and the Tourmaline hotel may have focussed Dom’s mind as – like Monty Python’s Sir Robin – he boldly turned his back and fled. Quite a few Audis and Mercs sporting them too!
This is the real Hills, not the faux McMansionland further west. The household debt ratios here are so off the radar they would vote for Satan if he was the Liberal candidate, and probably already have.
Somewhat disagree Jack. West of Thompson’s Corner, I will agree with you IS very much “Hills” and should be part of the Castle Hill seat but the central corridor along the Main Northern railway line is far more attuned towards Epping and to a lesser degree Hornsby.
Labour would have to win all the booths south of Pennet Hills Rd to have a shot at taking this seat, I don’t expect that to happen until the next Neville Wran election of 1978/1981
Over the last few days, Liberals have letter-boxed the entire Epping electorate with a “don’t trust labor” leaflet. Seats as safe as Epping usually only receive a HTV leaflet a couple of days before polling.
There are schools in this electorate where the entire playground is covered in demountable classrooms.
Highrise apartments are sprouting up everywhere and the residents and local councils have no say in the matter.
A mega development is proposed for the Cumberland Forest site in West Pennant Hills and it seems that residents are powerless to stop it.
Public transport is stuffed due to the closure of the Epping to Chatswood railway. Gladys’s mega billion dollar Magnificent Metro will not fix this problem. It will get worse as the Hillsbus services that travel to the city via the M2 motorway are to be phased out after the Metro opens.
Epping will be interesting to watch on election night.
I think we’re in furious agreement here. I’m contrasting the old (established?) money around Carlingford/Epping with the neuveau-riche of Cherrybrook, whom have – as you so astutely pointed out – a commonality of interest with those who spend their weekends trying to get out of the carpark at Castle Towers.
Re communities of interest, the late Paul O’Grady had a great definition of community of interest: what shopping centre/town would you go to to buy a work shirt? I can’t see people from Cherrybrook going to Carlingford Square, but I may be wrong.
We live in Cherrybrook and we aren’t the richest people in the suburb. We are on our 3rd house
and have worked for everything we have and so have a lot of others. My 2 children have good
jobs also and not Uni degrees either. We go to Castle Hill Towers as you can buy everything we need There is 3 hour car parking at the Towers now. The Norwest Metro wasn’t built just because
they wanted to spend money, it was because it was needed. You are wrong Madjack.
Labor would never win this seat. It is Liberal seat not Labor.
We’re in furious agreement Margaret. Both ends of this seat would vote for Satan if he was the Liberal candidate, Greg Smith is proof of that. What I was rather prolixically alluding to is the lack of common community across the electorate.
And if you think you’re not rich go for a drive around Whalan or Guildford and get back to me. I don’t doubt you’ve worked hard for what you’ve got, and good for you, but there aren’t many households in this electorate in the bottom three household income quintiles.
I can’t see too many commuters in this electorate forsaking their cars for the Metro. Those who catch the Hillsbus for sure, but not those who are already doing 20kp/h on the M2. I think we know the universe to be infinite for it has to contain the pain car commuters are prepared to put up with!
And I am aware of the three hour parking at Castle Towers, it’s called the exit ramp.
Easy Liberal hold.
Dominic Perrottet has thoroughly pissed off majority of Cherrybrook residents by choosing to stand on Andrew Constance’s side and by being in on the plan to deprive Cherrybrook of buses that were running smoothly for many decades.
Instead of representing his electorate, he arrogantly ignored community feedback on buses.
I don’t think Cherrybrook residents will forget this humiliation and arrogance by liberal party in next election.
the dismantling of the bus services is also a issue in closeby seats eg Riverstone which is more likely to flip than this one