Riverstone – NSW 2019

LIB 12.2%

Incumbent MP
Kevin Conolly, since 2011.

Geography
North-western Sydney. Riverstone includes northern parts of the City of Blacktown, including Glenwood, Quakers Hill, Riverstone and Stanhope Gardens.

History
Riverstone was first created for the 1981 election. It was Labor-held continuously until 2011.

The seat was first won in 1981 by Tony Johnson, who had served as Member for Mount Druitt since 1973. Johnson retired in 1983, triggering a by-election.

The 1983 by-election was won by Richard Amery. He held the seat until 1991. In 1991, the redistribution saw the restoration of the seat of Mount Druitt, covering areas previously covered by Riverstone. Amery moved to Mount Druitt, which he has held ever since. He served as a minister in the state Labor government from 1995 to 2003.

Riverstone was won in 1991 by John Aquilina, who had served as Member for Blacktown since 1981. He served as a minister in Labor governments from 1986 to 1988 and again from 1995 to 2003. In 2003 he left the ministry and was elected Speaker. He served as Speaker until the 2007 election, and then sat on the backbench until his retirement in 2011.

At the 2011 election, Riverstone was won by Liberal candidate Kevin Conolly with a 30% swing. Conolly was re-elected in 2015.

Candidates

Assessment
Riverstone is a reasonably safe Liberal seat, but the seat was held by Labor until 2011 so could well go back if there is a surge in Labor support.

2015 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Kevin Conolly Liberal 25,918 55.2 -3.2
Ian Morrison Labor 14,819 31.6 +7.9
Rob Vail Greens 2,541 5.4 FALSE
Allan Green Christian Democrats 2,525 5.4 +0.7
Karen Cacciotti No Land Tax 1,152 2.5 +2.5
Informal 1,549 3.2

2015 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Kevin Conolly Liberal 27,065 62.2 -7.8
Ian Morrison Labor 16,418 37.8 +7.8

Booth breakdown

Booths in Riverstone have been split into three parts: east, north and south.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 60.1% in the south to 65% in the north.

Voter group LIB 2PP % Total votes % of votes
East 64.8 15,571 33.2
South 60.1 11,922 25.4
North 65.0 3,927 8.4
Other votes 61.2 10,553 22.5
Pre-poll 59.6 4,982 10.6

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

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20 COMMENTS

  3. I think this is an area that will swing big esp with what looks like a change of govt………. I am pretty sure all of Riverstone falls in the corresponding federal seat…………. also the margin is much inflated and Mr Connolly relied on the Diaz family for internal support

  4. Error in text: “it has always been won by the ALP.”

    Other notes: holy cow, a 30% swing in 2011? Looks like there’s a lot of swinging voters in Riverstone when the statewide 2PP is 50/50.

    I graphed the Riverstone 2PP vs the statewide 2PP going back to 1999 – you can see it’s a sort of an S curve with a greater-than-uniform swing in the middle and a less-than-uniform swing at the sides.

    https://imgur.com/gallery/56SaGGO

  6. I live in this electorate. It’s important to realise that this is one the fastest-growing electorates in the state, and therefore is very much evolving demographically. Demographic changes may partly account for the whopping 30% swing against Labor in 2011. Riverstone is a seat of negatively-correlated demographic extremities. It has a young population, with a median age of 33. It has a large and growing migrant population, predominantly from India. These two factors would suggest a seat favourable to Labor. However, the electorate is also very high SES – with average incomes on par with neighbouring Castle Hill and Baulkham Hills.

    I think it is difficult to discern what will happen here in 2019. It is also hard to tell where this seat is headed in the long-term. The 2019 result may give some indication.

  8. Also my electorate. From memory (not always a reliable thing), there was a significant redrawing of the Riverstone electoral boundaries prior to the 2011 election, which was a main factor in the “30% swing” to the Liberals in the 2011 election.
    Whilst the electorate does roughly match the federal seat of Greenway, the later also includes a sizeable Labor dominated area to the south, plus the federal Labour MP is quite active in the local community. Mind you, Conolly is very much the absentee landlord.
    With the demographic trend in the electorate I suspect it is increasingly going to mirror the neighbouring Castle Hill & Baulkham Hills electorates. The Indian & Chinese ethnic population is packed into the SE corner, with little room for population growth. The recent development of the Schofields & Riverstone areas means the results from the north are going to be more like that of the booths in the central area, so I suspect Conolly will either hold steady or get a slight increase, even if there’s a statewide swing against the Liberals.

  9. No, the 30% swing wasn’t effected by a redistribution. There was a redistribution after the 2011 election which significantly reduced the area of the seat, but it didn’t cause much of a change to the margin.

  12. Like the electorates it sits between on the pendulum – Ryde and Parramatta – Riverstone is a suburban seat with a very inflated margin. Labor campaigning would indicate that all three are prime targets.

    An interesting wild card is the north west rail link which runs alongside the eastern edge of the Riverstone electorate. That ought to help the government, though it doesn’t open until after the election.

    Lean Liberal retain.

  13. Anyone who thinks the Libs will hold this one should try and get from anywhere in this electorate to anywhere else in Sydney between 6am and 9am Monday to Friday.

    Massive swing on here. Windsor Road/M2/M4/M7 will do to the Liberals what the M5 did to the ALP in 2011, only greater.

    Agree with Mick. The BBQ stopper in western Sydney is transport. The joint is gridlocked and public transport is a joke.

  14. Conolly was campaigning at Riley T-Way last week. A few weeks before, Christie was campaigning there. It was really funny, because the day Christie was there just happened to be the day that there were massive delays in Hillsbus services due to “an unexpected number of driver absences”. She said to me, “Buses are a problem, as you can see.”

  15. Wow not much choice here, Its not worth voting as there is only 3 candidates, People who support other parties like One nation and other far right parties won’t get their choice, And they might not even like ”choose the one you think is better” I believe this is the only seat with 3 candidates. Does anybody know why no other parties other than the 3 major decided against contesting here? I expect allot of spoiled and informal ballots in this electorate, Which might actually help the Liberal’s hold this seat

  16. Moderate I am not much of a drinker but how about a $10 bet here I pick alp win
    would you like to give me odds say 2/1 or say a 3% head start. if yes that is fine
    depends on how confident you are…. if not a straight bet is ok

  17. Prior to 2011 I was staunch Labor. Since I am over the 2PP.
    Very confident with Anne Marie. New face. The state needs a change.
    Sadly people always look at the Party leader and decide. You vote for a party at the end of the day. I only wish Anne Marie and Michelle Rowland (Fed member) were both independents. Remember safe seats get nothing. Riverstone is evidence of that. Glady’s campaigned in 2 marginal seats such as Penrith and I think East Hills today.
    Well the sausages better be good or Bunnings will get my vote.

  18. One that will likely go with whoever wins government, at the moment Liberal hold. This area is becoming more affluent, but isn’t a sapphire Liberal seat.

  20. @Danny

    Ever heard of the North West Metro? It’s almost completed
    The 607X bus route – providing an all day link to the city for the area, which didn’t exist under Labor
    Double Decker buses – promised many times when Labor was around
    Opal Card – arguably increased the efficiency of buses during peak hours
    Plenty of new schools
    Road upgrades e.g. Schofields Road

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