Lismore – NSW 2011

NAT 10.0%

Incumbent MP
Thomas George, since 1999.

Geography
Northern NSW. The seat of Lismore covers most of Lismore council area, most of Kyogle council area, and parts of Tweed, Byron, Richmond Valley and Tenterfield council areas. The seat covers the towns of Lismore and Murwillumbah.

History
The seat of Lismore was first created in 1894, and has existed for most of that period, and continuously since 1927. It has been dominated by the Country/National Party since 1927.

The seat first existed from 1894 to 1904, when it was abolished. It was restored in 1913, but in 1920 it was merged with the neighbouring seat of Byron. Byron became a three-member district covering the former districts of Byron, Clarence and Lismore.

In 1927, Lismore was restored, and was won by Country Party candidate William Missingham, who had held one of the seats in Byron since 1922. Missingham held the seat until his death in 1933.

At the 1933 Lismore by-election, the seat was won by William Frith, one of three Country Party candidates standing. Firth held the seat until the 1953 election. As he had turned 70 prior to that election, Country Party rules allowed multiple candidates to stand, and Frith was defeated by fellow Country Party candidate Jack Easter.

Easter retained his seat with ease in 1956. At the 1959 election, he was challenged by independent candidate Clyde Campbell, and held onto the seat by only two votes. A court decision saw a Lismore by-election called for later in 1959.

At the by-election, Campbell and Easter were both endorsed by the Country Party. The ALP ran Keith Compton, who won 47% of the primary vote. Despite the two Country Party candidates polling a majority of the vote, enough of Campbell’s preferences leaked to Compton to give him the seat.

Compton retained the seat in 1962, and lost in 1965 to Country Party candidate Bruce Duncan.

Duncan held the seat throughout the 1970s as the party became the National Country Party. In 1982, the party changed its name to the National Party. Duncan objected to the name change, and resigned from the party. While he sat as an independent, he was not opposed by the National Party in 1984, when he was re-elected as an independent. He retired at the 1988 election.

Bill Rixon won Lismore for the National Party in 1988. He held it comfortably over the next decade, and retired in 1999. He was succeeded in Lismore by fellow National Thomas George. George was re-elected in Lismore at the 2003 and 2007 elections.

Candidates

• Thomas George (Nationals)
• Andrew Moy (Labor)
• Margaret Kay (Christian Democratic Party)
• Russell Kilarney (Independent)
• Susan Stock (Greens)

Political situation
Lismore is a safe seat for the Nationals.

2007 result

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Booth breakdown
Booths in Lismore have been divided into four areas. Those booths in Tweed Shire have been grouped as “Tweed”. Those booths in Kyogle, Richmond Valley and Tenterfield council areas have been grouped as “West”. The majority of the seat’s population lies in Lismore local government area. These booths have been divided between the south, which includes the Lismore urban area, and the north, which includes towns such as Nimbin. The two booths in Byron Shire have been grouped with Lismore North.

The Nationals two-party-preferred majority over the ALP varied from 67.5% in the west to 53% in Tweed. In Lismore North, however, the ALP gained a two-party majority of almost 54%. According to primary votes, however, the ALP came a distant third in Lismore North, with the Nationals polling 39.2% and the Greens polling 36.4%. The Greens received a majority of primary votes in five booths in this area, and won a plurality in another booth.

The Greens polled 19.3% in Tweed, and 12-13% in the other parts of the seat.