Charlestown – NSW 2023

ALP 13.0%

Incumbent MP
Jodie Harrison, since 2014.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidates
• Assessment
• 2019 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Hunter region of NSW. Charlestown covers northeastern parts of the City of Lake Macquarie and southern parts of the City of Newcastle. Suburbs include Adamstown, Cardiff South, Charlestown, Dudley, Eleebana, Gateshead, Hillsborough, Kahibah, Kotara, New Lambton and Warners Bay.

Redistribution
Charlestown shifted north, losing Redhead to Swansea and the remainder of Cardiff Heights to Wallsend. Charlestown gained Cardiff South from Lake Macquarie, and also gained New Lambton and New Lambton Heights from Newcastle and Wallsend. These changes increased the Labor margin from 12.4% to 13.0%.

History
The seat of Charlestown was first created for the 1971 election. A change in redistribution rules saw the lower Hunter included in the central zone, leading to a loss of a Newcastle seat. Kahibah and Hamilton were merged and Charlestown was created in their place. Charlestown was held by the ALP continuously from its creation in 1971 until the 2011 election.

The first member for Charlestown was the ALP’s Jack Stewart, who had previously held the seat of Kahibah from 1957 until its abolition in 1971. He held the seat for 18 months until his death in 1972.

The 1972 by-election was won by the ALP’s Richard Face. He held the seat for the next thirty years until his retirement in 2003, serving as Minister for Gaming and Racing from 1995 to 2003.

In 2003, the seat was won by the ALP’s Matthew Morris. In 2007, Morris retained his seat with a 7% margin over Lake Macquarie councillor Paul Scarfe, running as an independent.

In 2011, Morris was defeated by Liberal candidate Andrew Cornwell, with a massive 25% primary vote swing to the Liberal Party, partly due to the absence of independent candidate Paul Scarfe.

Andrew Cornwell resigned first from the Liberal Party and then from Parliament in 2014 over accusations at the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he had accepted donations from a prohibited donor.

The 2014 by-election was won by Labor candidate Jodie Harrison, the Mayor of Lake Macquarie, with a 20% primary vote swing. Harrison was re-elected in 2015 and 2019.

Candidates

Assessment
Charlestown is a reasonably safe Labor seat.

2019 result

2019 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Booths in Charlestown were split into three areas: central, north and south.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 61.1% in the south to 66.6% in the centre.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 9.2% in the south to 13.1% in the north.

Election results in Charlestown at the 2019 NSW state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

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