Mallee – Election 2010

NAT 21.3%

Incumbent MP
John Forrest, since 1993.

Geography
North-western Victoria. Mallee covers a large area in the corner of Victoria, bordering New South Wales and South Australia. Mallee covers Gannawarra, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Horsham, Mildura, Swan Hill, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack council areas, and part of Northern Grampians council area. Mallee includes the centres of Mildura, Ouyen, Swan Hill, St Arnaud, Warracknabeal and Horsham.

History
Mallee was created at the redistribution before the 1949 election as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives. It has always been held by the Country Party and its successor National Party.

The seat was won in 1949 by the Country Party’s Winton Turnbull. Turnbull had stood for office for the Country Party before the Second World War, but was captured in the fall of Singapore and was a prisoner of war for over three years. Turnbull won Wimmera in 1946, and moved to the new seat of Mallee in 1949.

Turnbull held Mallee for the next two decades, and retired at the 1972 election.

Mallee was won in 1972 by Peter Fisher, who held Mallee for another two decades, until he retired in 1993.

Mallee was won in 1993 by John Forrest, also of the National Party. Forrest has been re-elected at every election since 1993.

Candidates

Political situation
Mallee is the safest Coalition seat in the country. The Nationals should have no trouble retaining the seat.

2007 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
John Forrest NAT 53,227 63.94 -4.48
John Zigouras ALP 18,187 21.85 +1.54
Glenn Coulthard FF 5,435 6.53 +2.01
Liam Farrelly GRN 3,468 4.17 +0.39
Vikki McLeod DEM 2,323 2.79 +1.24
Chris Lahy CEC 600 0.72 -0.71

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
John Forrest NAT 59,328 71.27 -3.48
John Zigouras ALP 23,912 28.73 +3.48

Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into five areas according to local government boundaries:

  • North – Mildura council area
  • East – Swan Hill and Gannawarra
  • South West – Horsham and West Wimmera
  • Central – Hindmarsh and Yarriambiack
  • South East – Buloke and Northern Grampians

The Nationals polled over 70% in four of those areas, while polling less than 66% in the north of the seat, which includes Mildura, which is the largest population centre in the seat.

Polling booths in Mallee. North in red, East in blue, South East in orange, Central in yellow, South West in green.
Voter group FF % GRN % NAT 2CP % Total votes % of votes
North 8.23 4.75 65.83 23,366 28.07
East 4.73 2.41 75.23 16,170 19.43
South West 7.93 5.71 74.03 11,269 13.54
Central 6.69 3.26 73.64 7,922 9.52
South East 4.67 2.97 73.49 5,959 7.16
Other votes 5.64 4.80 71.28 18,554 22.29
Results of the 2007 federal election in Mallee.
Results of the 2007 federal election around Mildura.
Results of the 2007 federal election in Horsham.

4 COMMENTS

  1. One interesting thing about this seat is that it was where both Family First and the Democrats recorded their best results in 2007.

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