Created 1968 Electors 110,322 (2016) Area 44 km² Member of parliament Tanya Plibersek Namesake Sydney | MP Tanya Plibersek Demographic Inner Metropolitan Founded 1968 Elector 110,322 Party Australian Labor Party | |
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The Division of Sydney is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division draws it name from Sydney, the most populous city in Australia, which itself was named after former British Home Secretary Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney. The division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 21 November 1968, replacing the old Division of Dalley, Division of East Sydney and Division of West Sydney, and was first contested at the 1969 election.
The division is located around the City of Sydney, and includes many inner suburbs such as Alexandria, Beaconsfield, Broadway, Chippendale, Darlington, Erskineville, Forest Lodge, Glebe, Haymarket, Millers Point, Pyrmont, Redfern, Rosebery, The Rocks, Ultimo, Waterloo, Zetland and parts of Annandale, Camperdown, Newtown, Surry Hills and the generic locality of Kings Cross which incorporates parts of the localities of Darlinghurst, Potts Point and Woolloomooloo. Lord Howe Island, within the Tasman Sea and some 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-east of the Sydney central business district, is located within the division; as are the harbour islands from Spectacle Island to the Sydney Heads, and all the waters of Port Jackson, except for Middle Harbour and North Harbour.
The current Member for the Division of Sydney, since the 1998 federal election, is Tanya Plibersek, a member of the Australian Labor Party and the current Deputy Leader of the Opposition.
History
The seat is a safe Labor seat; the Labor Party has never polled less than 60% of the two-party preferred vote at any election. Following a national trend towards progressive inner-city voting, the seat had the highest amount of Green votes in any federal electorate in 2004, though by 2013 it had dropped to seventh-highest.
As at the 2001 census, the electorate had the highest number of same-sex couples in Australia (2,265).