ALP 14.7%
Incumbent MP
Jenny Aitchison, since 2015.
- Geography
- Redistribution
- History
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2019 results
- Booth breakdown
- Results maps
Geography
Hunter. The seat of Maitland covers most of the City of Maitland, with the exception of the areas north of the Hunter River. In addition to Maitland itself, the seat covers places such as Thornton, Woodberry, Millers Forest and Oakhampton.
Redistribution
Maitland lost those parts of the Maitland council area north of the Hunter River, including Bolwarra, Hillsborough, Largs, Lorn and Maitland Vale. All of these areas were transferred to Upper Hunter. This change increased the Labor margin from 13.2% to 14.7%.
History
The electoral district of Maitland has existed continuously since 1904. The seat first existed as a single-member district from 1904 to 1920. In that time the party label of the local member changed, but the seat was always held by conservative/liberal parties, ending up as a Nationalist seat.
When proportional representation was introduced in 1920, Maitland was expanded to be a much larger regional seat covering Cessnock and the Upper Hunter, and electing three MLAs. At three successive elections this seat returned the same three MLAs: the ALP’s Walter O’Hearn, Nationalist William Cameron, and Progressive/Nationalist Walter Bennett.
In 1927, Maitland shrunk back to be a seat focused on Maitland itself electing a single-member, and the ALP’s Walter O’Hearn won the seat. He held it until 1932.
The Liberal Party held Maitland continuously from 1932 until 1981, and the ALP has dominated the seat for most of the period since 1981.
The seat was held from 1932 to 1956 by Walter Howarth. He first held the seat as part of the United Australia Party, and then the Liberal Party. He served as Liberal deputy leader from 1946 to 1954.
Howarth retired in 1956, and was succeeded by Milton Morris, also of the Liberal Party. Morris served as a minister in the Coalition state government from 1965 until the government’s defeat in 1976, particularly serving as Minister for Transport from 1965 to 1975.
Morris resigned from the Legislative Assembly in 1980 to contest the federal seat of Lyne at the 1980 federal election. The sitting National Country Party MP was retiring, and Morris came close to overtaking the NCP candidate and winning the seat.
The Maitland by-election in early 1981 was won by the Liberal Party’s Peter Toms. He held the seat for barely six months, losing the seat to the ALP’s Allan Walsh. The 1981 redistribution had made Maitland into a much stronger Labor seat.
Walsh held the seat at the 1984 and 1988 elections, surviving a big swing in 1988. In 1991, a redistribution made the seat stronger for the Liberal Party, and Walsh retired.
Former Mayor of Maitland Peter Blackmore won the seat for the Liberal Party in 1991. He held the seat for two terms, but in 1999 he lost the seat to the ALP’s John Price. Price had previously held the seat of Waratah since 1984, but the seat was abolished in the 1999 redistribution.
Price served as Deputy Speaker from 1999 to 2007, and retired at the 2007 election.
In 2007, the seat was contested by prosecutor Frank Terenzini for the ALP, Mayor of Maitland Bob Geoghegan for the Liberal Party, and former Member for Maitland Peter Blackmore, who ran as an independent. Blackmore outpolled the Liberal candidate, and on the final count the ALP won just under 52% of the two-party-preferred vote against Blackmore.
In 2011, Terenzini lost to Liberal candidate Robyn Parker, who had been a member of the Legislative Council since 2003. Parker served as Minister for the Environment from 2011 to 2014.
Parker retired in 2015, and Labor candidate Jenny Aitchison won the seat. Aitchison was re-elected in 2019.
Assessment
Maitland is a safe Labor seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Jenny Aitchison | Labor | 23,465 | 44.2 | +1.8 | 45.3 |
| Sally Halliday | Liberal | 14,137 | 26.6 | +1.8 | 25.3 |
| Neil Turner | One Nation | 5,785 | 10.9 | +10.9 | 11.3 |
| John Brown | Greens | 3,428 | 6.5 | +0.1 | 6.1 |
| Nadrra Sarkis | Shooters, Fishers & Farmers | 2,842 | 5.4 | +5.4 | 5.6 |
| Amy Johnson | Animal Justice | 1,454 | 2.7 | +2.7 | 2.9 |
| James Lawson | Keep Sydney Open | 1,108 | 2.1 | +2.1 | 2.0 |
| Sam Ferguson | Sustainable Australia | 831 | 1.6 | +1.6 | 1.6 |
| Informal | 2,146 | 3.9 |
2019 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing | Redist |
| Jenny Aitchison | Labor | 27,211 | 63.2 | -0.6 | 64.7 |
| Sally Halliday | Liberal | 15,835 | 36.8 | +0.6 | 35.3 |
Booths in Maitland have been split into three parts: central, east and west.
Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 63% in the centre to 66.3% in the east.
One Nation came third, with a primary vote ranging from 10.2% in the centre to 12.1% in the west.
| Voter group | ON prim % | ALP 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 10.2 | 63.0 | 12,170 | 25.6 |
| West | 12.1 | 66.1 | 11,310 | 23.8 |
| East | 11.7 | 66.3 | 6,239 | 13.1 |
| Pre-poll | 10.6 | 64.5 | 11,448 | 24.1 |
| Other votes | 12.5 | 64.8 | 6,308 | 13.3 |
Election results in Maitland at the 2019 NSW state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and One Nation.
Easy liberal gain. Joking first comment.
With the amount of Sydney people moving to the region MAITLAND shouldn’t be a safe Labor seat for much longer.
One Nation is doing harm to the state Liberals in the Hunter because of OPV because it splits the conservative vote and conservatives usually exhaust their preferences (so do Labor voters, it’s really only the Greens and the teals that don’t exhaust their preferences). Yet at the same time OPV helps them in seats like North Shore.
This brings the question: is it finally time that NSW introduces full preferential voting for state elections? NSW is the only state that still does this for lower house elections; the other states and territories have already replaced OPV with FPV which is what’s used to elect seats in the House of Representatives.
Nether Portal, I don’t agree that OPV or One Nation harmed the Liberals. In Maitland and other Hunter seats like Wallsend and Cessnock, Labor won by a huge margin and scored over 40% of primary votes. Generally, such seats are safe Labor. At the 2019 federal election in Hunter, with CPV, Labor still managed to hold by 3% following a surge in One Nation and collapse in Labor votes.
OPV and One Nation probably screwed the Liberals in Western Sydney especially Wollondilly and Penrith as One Nation voters are way more likely to exhaust their votes than Greens or Labor or independent voters.
On the flip side, the exhaustion of votes of Labor or Greens voters helped save the Liberals in various Sydney based seats. The Liberals marginally beat a teal in Pittwater and beat Labor in Ryde and Terrigal.
Tasmania has OPV – you only vote up to 7. And the senate does too. Personally, I would like to see OPV everywhere – I want the power to not number a box or to exclude the major parties altogether. OPV also makes the major parties less complacent on preferences – they would have to fight for them.