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| Australian federal election, 2016
Division of Sydney, New South Wales
Central Sydney: Newtown, Redfern, Rosebery, Surry Hills
Sitting member: Hon Tanya Plibersek (Labor), elected 1998
Enrolment at close of rolls: 110,322
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 14.7%
2016 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 12.9%
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Candidates in ballot-paper order:
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1. Ula Falanga
Christian Democrats |
2. Mark Berriman
Animal Justice Party |
3. Kris Spike
Sustainable Australia |
4. Geoffrey Winters
Liberal Party |
5. Tom Geiser
Science Party |
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6. Sylvie Ellsmore
Australian Greens |
7. Peter Boyle
Socialist Alliance |
8. Hon Tanya Plibersek
Australian Labor Party |
9. Rebecca Lanning
Australian Sex Party |
10. Tula Tzoras
Online Direct Democracy |
2013 results
Statistics and history
Sydney was created in 1969, when the old Labor strongholds of Dalley, East Sydney and West Sydney were amalgamated due to their rapidly falling populations. The seat takes in Sydney's inner suburban area, which 50 years ago was hard-core working class, in places verging on slums, but today is one of Australia's wealthiest areas, colonised by high-income prefessionals, most of them single or at least childless. Sydney has Australia's lowest proportion of families with dependent children, and its fourth-lowest proportion of dwellings being purchased, and it also has Australia's second-highest proportion of flat-dwellers. This partly reflects the large gay and lesbian community in Darlinghurst and Surry Hills, but there are many heterosexual singles here as well. The seat does still have pockets of poverty, particularly in Redfern, and some working-class areas in the south.
Not surprisingly, Sydney has always been one of the safest Labor seats in Australia, although now much of that support comes as second preferences via the Greens, who polled 17% here in 2013. The Greens would have some chance of winning this seat if the Labor vote fell to 40%, but so far they have not succeeded even in coming second, let alone winning. Sydney is the wealthiest seat held by Labor, but that does not seem to be weakening Labor's grip.
Tanya Plibersek, Labor MP for Sydney since 1998, the daughter of Slovenian immigrants, worked for the Domestic Violence Unit of the NSW Ministry for the Status of Women before her election. She was on the opposition frontbench from 2004. She was successively Minister for Housing, for Human Services and for Health in the Rudd-Gillard Government. After the 2013 election she was elected Labor Deputy Leader, making her the senior figure in the party's left-wing. She is now shadow minister for foreign affairs.
Plibersek's high profile and status as a leader of the left will help keep this seat safe from the Greens. The 2016 redistribution has further helped Labor by removing the Greens stronghold of Balmain from the seat. The Greens candidate in 2016 is Sylvie Ellsmore, a lawyer, former policy coordinator for the NSW Aboriginal Land Council and a member of Marrickville City Council. The Liberal candidate is Geoffrey Winters, a lawyer who is
both gay and Indigenous.
These maps are the property of Adam Carr and may not be reproduced without his permission.
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Prospective pendulum, showing all candidates
State and territory maps, showing new boundaries
The thirty seats that will decide the election
Other seats of interest
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