Blaxland – Australia 2025

ALP 13.0%

Incumbent MP
Jason Clare, since 2007.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidates
• Assessment
• 2022 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
South-western Sydney. Blaxland covers a majority of the Cumberland council area, the north-western corner of the Canterbury-Bankstown council area, and small parts of the Fairfield and Parramatta council areas. Major suburbs include Auburn, Birrong, Chester Hill, Granville, Guildford, Merrylands and Sefton.

Redistribution
Blaxland changed significantly, shifting north. Blaxland lost Bankstown, Condell Park, Georges Hall and Yagoona to Watson, and also lost Milperra to Banks. Blaxland picked up Guildford West, Merrylands West, Woodpark, Yennora, Old Guildford and the remainder of Guildford from McMahon, also picked up Granville, Granville South, Holroyd, Merrylands and South Wentworthville from Parramatta, and finally picked up Rookwood Cemetery and part of Lidcombe from Watson. These changes slightly reduced the Labor margin from 14.9% to 13.0%.

History
Blaxland is a safe Labor seat, and has been held by the ALP continuously since 1949.

Blaxland was first won in 1949 by Labor candidate James Harrison. Harrison defeated former NSW Labor premier Jack Lang, who had won the seat of Reid as an independent in 1946.

Harrison held Blaxland as a Labor backbencher for twenty years, retiring in 1969. He was succeeded by 25-year-old Paul Keating. Keating quickly rose through the ranks of the ALP, joining Gough Whitlam’s ministry in 1975. Keating went on to serve as Treasurer in the Hawke government and after a period of turmoil was elected Labor leader in 1991, becoming Prime Minister.

Keating was re-elected as Prime Minister at the 1993 election, but lost the 1996 election. Following his defeat he resigned as Member for Blaxland.

The ensuing by-election was won by Labor candidate Michael Hatton. Hatton held the seat for the entirety of the Howard government, but was challenged for preselection in 2007 to Jason Clare, a former advisor to NSW Premier Bob Carr, who had the support of the NSW Labor Party executive, and Clare won the seat at the 2007 election. Clare has been re-elected five times.

Candidates

Assessment
Blaxland is a typical safe Labor seat, but Jason Clare is being challenged by a prominent local independent councillor. The seat has been identified as a key target for a campaign to move Muslim voters away from the ALP, in part over the war in Gaza. This seat will be a test of that campaign’s effectiveness. It would be foolish to predict what will happen, but this area doesn’t have a strong history of voting for independents.

2022 result

2022 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Polling places in Blaxland have been divided into three areas: north-east, north-west and south.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 58.9% in the north-west to 68.3% in the north-east.

Election results in Blaxland at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor and the Liberal Party.

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