Created 1922 Electors 106,566 (2016) Area 40 km² Member of parliament Linda Burney Namesake Edmund Barton | MP Linda Burney Demographic Inner metropolitan Founded 1922 Elector 106,566 Party Australian Labor Party | |
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The Division of Barton is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1922 and is named for Sir Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia.
The division has always been based in the inner southern suburbs of Sydney, and currently includes the suburbs of Arncliffe, Banksia, Bardwell Park, Bardwell Valley, Bexley, Bexley North, Brighton-Le-Sands, Clemton Park, Earlwood, Kyeemagh, Rockdale, Tempe, Turrella, Undercliffe, and Wolli Creek; as well as parts of Belmore, Beverly Hills, Campsie, Canterbury, Carlton, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Hurstville, Kingsgrove, Kogarah, Marrickville, and Penshurst.
The current Member for Barton, since the 2016 federal election, is Linda Burney, the former Deputy Leader of the New South Wales Opposition.
History
For most of its history, Barton has been a marginal seat. It was held by the Australian Labor Party for most of the time after 1940, though it has been taken by the Liberals (or their predecessors) at high-tide elections.
Barton's most prominent member has been Dr H. V. Evatt, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party between 1951 and 1960. Evatt nearly lost the seat in 1951 and 1955, and in 1958 he transferred to the safe seat of Hunter. A former minister in the Hawke and Keating ministries, Gary Punch, held the seat for Labor between 1983 and 1986. Robert McClelland, a former Attorney-General, held the seat for Labor between 1996 and 2013.
The Division of Barton is linked to one of the more unusual episodes in Australian politics. The first member for Barton, Labor's Frederick McDonald, disappeared after his 1925 defeat by Nationalist Thomas Ley, and it is now believed that Ley had him murdered. Ley was later found to be insane and died in Broadmoor Asylum in Britain.
Former member Nickolas Varvaris is a Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives, represented Barton after the 2013 federal election, achieving a two-party swing of 7.2 percent in Barton to finish with a two-party vote of just 50.3 percent, which made Barton the government's most marginal seat in the country.
A redistribution prior to the 2016 federal election saw Barton change from a marginal Liberal seat in to a notional marginal Labor seat with a notional Labor two-party vote of 54.4 percent. It was not until under on-going pressure in May 2016 that Varvaris eventually confirmed his intention to re-contest the seat. Linda Burney contested the seat for Labor and won.