Wahroonga – NSW 2023

LIB 19.1%

Incumbent MP
Alister Henskens, member for Ku-ring-gai since 2015.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2019 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Northern Sydney. Wahroonga covers western parts of Ku-ring-gai local government area, and south-eastern parts of Hornsby Shire. It covers the suburbs of Wahroonga, Warrawee, Turramurra, Normanhurst, West Pymble, Thornleigh, Pennant Hills, Westleigh, and parts of St Ives.

Redistribution
Wahroonga has primarily replaced Ku-ring-gai. The seat lost North Turramurra and the remainder of Gordon and Killara to Davidson, and gained Pennant Hills, Thornleigh, Westleigh and the remainder of North Wahroonga from Hornsby. These changes reduced the Liberal margin from 20.5% to 19.1%.

History
Wahroonga is a new seat, replacing Ku-ring-gai. The district of Ku-ring-gai was created in 1973, and it has always been held by the Liberal Party.

It was first won in 1973 by John Maddison. Maddison had been Member for Hornsby since 1962, and Minister for Justice since 1965. He continued serving as a minister until the government lost power in 1976. He retired in 1980.

The 1980 Ku-ring-gai by-election was won by Liberal candidate Nick Greiner. He had previously attempted unsuccessfully to win the seat of Willoughby at the 1978 election. Greiner became Liberal leader in 1983, and at the 1984 election he substantially reduced the ALP government’s majority in the Assembly.

Greiner led the Liberal-National coalition to victory with a massive landslide at the 1988 election. He won re-election in 1991, but without a majority in the Assembly. He was forced to resign in 1992 over accusations of corrupt behaviour.

Stephen O’Doherty won the 1992 Ku-ring-gai by-election for the Liberal Party. He was re-elected in 1995.

Prior to the 1999 election, the boundaries for the area were redrawn, with Ku-ring-gai moving south, and the seat of Hornsby being restored in areas previously included in Ku-ring-gai. O’Doherty moved to Hornsby, while the member for the abolished seat of Northcott, Barry O’Farrell, moved to Ku-ring-gai. O’Doherty held Hornsby until his retirement in 2002.

O’Farrell had been State Director of the NSW Liberal Party from 1992 to 1995, when he won the seat of Northcott. O’Farrell was appointed to the Opposition frontbench in 1998, and after the 1999 election he was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

When Kerry Chikarovski was replaced as leader by John Brogden in 2002, O’Farrell was also replaced as Deputy Leader, but he was restored to the role after the 2003 election.

After Peter Debnam led the Coalition to another election defeat in 2007, O’Farrell was elected as Liberal leader.

Barry O’Farrell led the Coalition through the last term of the Labor government, and in 2011 was elected Premier after a landslide to the Coalition.

O’Farrell resigned as Liberal leader and Premier in April 2014. He retired from Ku-ring-gai in 2015, and was succeeded by Alister Henskens. Henskens was re-elected in 2019.

Candidates

Assessment
Wahroonga is a safe Liberal seat.

2019 result

2019 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Wahroonga have been split into three areas: north-east, south-east and west. Polling places in the Ku-ring-gai council area have been split into north-east and south-east, while those in the Hornsby council area have been grouped as west.

The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 64.8% in the west to 75.7% in the north-east.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 11.5% in the north-east to 14.7% in the south-east.

Election results in Wahroonga at the 2019 NSW state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.

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