Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory
Central and southern Canberra: Tharwa, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek, Woden Valley
Sitting member: Gai Brodtmann (Labor), elected 2010
Enrolment at close of rolls: 143,279
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 7.0%
2016 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 7.5%

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Candidates in ballot-paper order:

1. Gai Brodtmann Australian Labor Party	2. Patricia Cahill Australian Greens	3. Christopher Bucknell Bullet Train For Australia	4. Jessica Adelan-Langford Liberal Party

2013 results

Statistics and history

The seat of Canberra was created in 1974 when the old seat of Australian Capital Territory was divided in two. It takes in the Canberra suburbs
south of Lake Burley Griffin, as well as the rural areas of the southern ACT. Although Canberra is a fairly socially homogenous city, the seat of
Canberra is somewhat more middle-class than the northern seat of Fenner (formerly Fraser). It has been won by the Liberal Party three times, in 1975
and 1977 and at the 1995 by-election which marked the beginning of the end of the Keating government.

Normally, however, Canberra's large population of public servants vote fairly solidly Labor, which explains the contrast between this seat's very
high income levels and its voting behaviour: it is the third-wealthiest Labor-held electorate, but even very wealthy suburbs like Red Hill and
Yarralumla vote Labor in Canberra. Labor's support is evenly spread across the seat, although the southern suburbs are a little less strongly Labor
than the northern ones.

Members for Canberra have include Labor ministers Kep Enderby, Ros Kelly and Bob McMullan. Annette Ellis moved to this seat from the abolished seat
of Namadgi in 1998. She was on the opposition frontbench from 2002 to 2004 election, but retired in 2010.

Gai Brodtmann, Labor MP for Canberra since 2010, was a public servant, and media adviser and small business owner before her election. She has been
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence since 2013. Her Liberal opponent in 2016 will be Jessica Adelan-Langford, whose occupation I have been
unable to determine. The 2016 redistribution has transferred some territory north of the Lake into Canberra, slightly improving the Labor margin.

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