Australian federal election, 2 July 2016
Division of Gippsland, Victoria
Eastern Victoria: Bairnsdale, Morwell, Sale, Traralgon
Sitting member: Hon Darren Chester (Nationals), elected 2008
Enrolment at close of rolls: 104,082
2013 Nationals majority over Labor: 15.8%

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Candidates in ballot-paper order:

1. Ian Onley Australian Greens	2. Peter Dorian Rise Up Australia	3. Shashi Bhatti Australian Labor Party	4. Christine Sindt Independent	5. Brian Heath Family First

6. Cherie Smith Independent	7. Hon Darren Chester The Nationals	8. Ashleigh Belsar Australian Christians	9. Peter Gardner Renewable Energy Party	10. Ben Buckley Liberal Democratic Party

2013 results

Statistics and history

Gippsland has existed since Federation and has always occupied the eastern third of Victoria, the heavily agricultural Gippsland region. Before 1949 the seat included the industrial towns of the La Trobe Valley, and Labor nearly won it in 1943. The 1949 redistribution moved the Valley into McMillan, cutting the Labor vote. But as Gippsland's share of Victoria's population has declined, the seat has had to expand, firstly into the dairying country of South Gippsland, and in 2004 back into the Valley, when the 2004 redistribution moved Morwell and Traralgon from McMillan into Gippsland. Morwell was a strongly Labor town, Traralgon usually a moderately Labor one, although the Labor vote in both has declined as the Valley has deindustrialised in recent years.

Gippsland has never elected a Labor member. It has been held by the Country Party and its successor the Nationals continuously since 1922, longer than any other seat. Past members have included ministers Tom Paterson and Peter Nixon. Peter McGauran won the seat for the Nationals 1983, and was a minister in the Howard Government. He resigned after the 2007 election defeat.

Darren Chester, Nationals MP for Gippsland since the 2008 by-election which followed McGauran's resignation, was a newspaper and television journalist, a marketing consultant, and chief of staff to Victorian Nationals leader Peter Ryan before his election. As one of the Nationals' younger talents, he has been promoted rapidly. He was on the opposition front bench from 2010 and is now in Cabinet as Minister for Infrastructure and Transport. The Labor candidate is Shashi Bhatti, a Morwell accountant.

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