Albury – NSW 2011

LIB 19.0%

Incumbent MP
Greg Aplin, since 2003.

Geography
Southwestern NSW. Albury covers all of Albury, Corowa, Greater Hume and Tumbarumba local government areas, and a small part of Tumut Shire. The main centres of the seat are the city of Albury itself and the town of Corowa.

History
The electoral district of Albury has existed since 1880, with the exception of three terms in the 1920s. It has been dominated by the Liberal Party and its predecessors, but has occasionally been won by the Labor Party.

The ALP held the seat from 1930 to 1932, when it was won by United Australia Party candidate Alexander Mair. He joined the conservative state government as an assistant minister following the 1938 election. He quickly rose to the position of Treasurer, and in 1939 he became Premier after the sitting UAP Premier, Bertram Stevens, lost the confidence of the House.

Mair served as Premier for the next two years, leading a dysfunctional government that was defeated by Labor at the 1941 election.

Mair led the UAP in opposition, and when the UAP disintegrated in 1943, he became leader of the splinter Democratic Party. He resigned as leader in 1944, and helped form the new Liberal Party.

When the first leader of the NSW Liberal Party, Reginald Weaver, died in 1945, he became leader, serving for only four months. Later in 1946, he resigned from Albury in an unsuccessful attempt to move to the Senate.

The ALP’s John Hurley won Albury at the 1946 by-election. He had won through leakage of preferences between the Liberal and Country candidates. He lost his seat at the 1947 election, losing by only 27 votes to Doug Padman, a Liberal candidate also endorsed by the Country Party.

Padman, a former Mayor of Albury, held the seat from 1947 until his retirement in 1965.

Gordon Mackie held Albury for the Liberal Party from 1965 until 1978, when he lost his seat to the ALP’s Harold Mair. Mair held it for a decade, losing in 1988.

Ian Glachan won the seat of Albury in 1988. He held the seat until his retirement in 2003.

Greg Aplin has held Albury since 2003 for the Liberal Party, and currently serves as Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Aboriginal Affairs.

Candidates

Political situation
Albury is a very safe Liberal seat.

2007 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Greg Aplin LIB 27,643 65.3 +19.2
Chris Ryan ALP 11,589 27.4 +13.9
Chris Sobey GRN 3,077 7.3 +4.4

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Greg Aplin LIB 28,311 69.0 -3.4
Chris Ryan ALP 12,731 31.0 +3.4

Booth breakdown
Booths in Albury have been divided into four areas, between the Albury, Corowa, Greater Hume and Tumbarumba local government areas.

The two-party-preferred vote for the Liberal Party varied from 75.5% in Greater Hume to 58% in Tumbarumba. The majority was 68% in Albury itself, which makes up a majority of the seat.

Polling booths in Albury at the 2007 state election. Albury in yellow, Greater Hume in green, Corowa in blue, Tumbarumba in orange.
Voter group GRN % LIB 2CP % Total votes % of votes
Albury 8.7 68.1 22,718 53.7
Corowa 4.1 67.6 6,141 14.5
Greater Hume 5.0 75.5 4,988 11.8
Tumbarumba 5.8 58.0 1,920 4.5
Other votes 7.5 71.6 6,542 15.5
Two-party-preferred votes in Albury at the 2007 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in the City of Albury at the 2007 state election.
Two-party-preferred votes in Corowa at the 2007 state election.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Once of a couple of country seats which Labor won at the ‘Wrannslide’ elections. Hard to believe it nowadays as it’s such a safe area for the Libs.

    1999 was a cliffhanger result with Glachan holding on by less than 700 votes against independent Claire Douglas. Douglas tried again in 2003 but her vote dropped.

    Paul Wareham is a former Liberal, and has a rather curious take on why he’s prepared for the challenge of state politics. According to that Border Mail report:

    Last week he said that “councils are quite feral, if I could use that term, they can do anything and say anything” and “if I can master that, I can master anything”.

    And incidentally Ben, he’s not up for ‘re-election’ just yet. Same typo with Richie Williamson in Clarence too.

  2. Nico Mathews, a former Albury councillor and Labor’s candidate in 2003, was supposed to run for Labor here, but is to be replaced by Darren Cameron after he was charged with drink-driving over the weekend.

  5. Cos I’m cool, I’m stealing Matt’s idea and doing a seat by seat prediction. :p

    Prediction: Liberal retain, around a 5% swing. If he has a profile, then Paul Wareham to finish 2nd.

  7. And just to add in case it takes Ben a while before he gets the chance to update them that the sixth candidate is Stephen Bingle for the Democrats. Their only lower house candidate this year.

Comments are closed.