LIB 12.0%
Incumbent MP
Gareth Ward (Independent), since 2011.
- Geography
- Redistribution
- History
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2019 results
- Booth breakdown
- Results maps
Geography
South coast. Kiama covers Kiama local government areas and parts of the neighbouring Shellharbour and Shoalhaven council areas, along with a small peripheral part of the City of Wollongong. The seat stretches from Albion Park in the north to Bomaderry in the south.
The current incarnation of the electoral district of Kiama has existed since 1981, and has always been won by the ALP. There was a previous single-member district of Kiama from 1859 to 1904.
Kiama was created at the 1981 election. Throughout the 1970s Kiama had been part of the district of Wollondilly. The first member for Kiama was the ALP’s Bill Knott. Knott had been elected Member for Wollondilly in 1978. He moved to Kiama in 1981 and was re-elected in 1984. He retired on medical grounds in 1986.
The 1986 by-election was won by the Labor candidate, Shellharbour mayor Bob Harrison. He won re-election in 1991 and 1995, retiring in 1999.
Kiama was won in 1999 by the ALP’s Matt Brown. Brown was appointed a minister following the 2007 election. In September 2008, he was appointed Minister for Police in the first cabinet under new Premier Nathan Rees. Three days later he was forced to resign after revelations of his conduct at a party in his office. He returned to the backbench after his resignation.
At the 2011 election, Brown lost Kiama to Liberal candidate Gareth Ward with a 19.4% swing. Ward was re-elected in 2015 and 2019. Ward was appointed as a parliamentary secretary in 2015 and joined the ministry in 2019.
In 2021, Ward was identified as the subject of an investigation by the child abuse and sex crimes squad of the NSW Police. Ward moved to the crossbench at this time. Ward was charged with a number of offences in 2022.
Assessment
Kiama is difficult to pick. The sitting MP is contesting the seat as an independent. While he may have been affected by the allegations which triggered his move to the crossbench, he may well still have a personal vote from holding his seat for twelve years and apparently still maintains support in the local Liberal branches.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Gareth Ward | Liberal | 26,230 | 53.6 | +2.0 |
| Andy Higgins | Labor | 13,803 | 28.2 | -3.9 |
| Nina Digiglio | Greens | 5,815 | 11.9 | +0.8 |
| John Kadwell | Christian Democrats | 1,671 | 3.4 | +0.3 |
| Anne Whatman | Sustainable Australia | 1,427 | 2.9 | +2.9 |
| Informal | 1,603 | 3.2 |
2019 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Gareth Ward | Liberal | 28,016 | 62.0 | +3.4 |
| Andy Higgins | Labor | 17,167 | 38.0 | -3.4 |
Booths in Kiama have been split into three parts according to local government boundaries: Albion Park (covering Shellharbour council area booths), Kiama and Shoalhaven.
The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three electorates, ranging from 53% in Albion Park to 67% in Shoalhaven.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 8.8% in Albion Park to 14.9% in Kiama.
| Voter group | GRN prim % | LIB 2PP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Shoalhaven | 14.1 | 67.3 | 11,092 | 22.7 |
| Kiama | 14.9 | 61.6 | 7,702 | 15.7 |
| Albion Park | 8.8 | 53.2 | 6,447 | 13.2 |
| Pre-poll | 9.2 | 63.1 | 16,278 | 33.3 |
| Other votes | 14.0 | 59.6 | 7,427 | 15.2 |
Election results in Kiama at the 2019 NSW state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.
The reason he barely he only made it back was due to the fact he was contesting as an independent so he’s up against both liberal and labor in an opv voting system shows he’s obviously got some good standing in the community for people to return him to office while being accused of these charges
I refer the honourable member for late night soliloquies to Healey’s Law of Holes.
“When you find yourself in one, stop digging.”
@John the courts are not politically influenced like America. It’s a court of law not a kangaroo court of partisans. He’s been found guilty which yes can be overturned but until then he’s a convicted criminal and that alone should disqualify him from sitting or running for parliament. When he was re-elected last time they were allegations, now that the allegations have been proven true in court, he doesn’t have any grounds to stand on.
Hi All
Can we all be careful on what we say especially with respect to a legal case. There is no by-election being called yet and i am sure if one will be called.
Ben, maybe lock this thread and if a by-election is called create a new one.
Cut this out now. I already warned people not to comment on the case.
John has been blocked from commenting due to his inappropriate comments. A month will be a good amount of time to think about his behaviour.
This comments section is just an absolute time-suck and I am so close to closing it permanently.
If there is a by-election I will write a by-election guide and, if I haven’t completely shut down all comments by then, there will be a comments thread there.