Davidson – NSW 2023

LIB 25.0% vs GRN

Incumbent MP
Jonathan O’Dea, since 2007.

Geography
Northern Sydney. Davidson covers the eastern half of the Ku-ring-gai council area and a small part of the Northern Beaches council area, including the suburbs of Roseville, Gordon, North Turramurra, Lindfield, Killara, Davidson and parts of Belrose and St Ives.

Redistribution
Davidson shifted west, taking in North Turramurra, Gordon and Killara from Ku-ring-gai, and losing Castle Cove to Willoughby and the remainder of Forestville and Oxford Falls and part of Belrose to Wakehurst.

History
The district of Davidson has existed since 1971, and it has always been won by the Liberal Party.

Davidson was first won in 1971 by Liberal MP Dick Healey. He had been Member for Wakehurst since 1962. He served as a minister in the Coalition government from 1973 to 1976. He held his seat until 1981, when he lost Liberal preselection to Terry Metherell.

Terry Metherell quickly rose to the Coalition frontbench in Opposition, and became Minister for Education when Greiner gained power in 1988. His educational reforms were unpopular, and he was forced to resign from the ministry after accusations of tax avoidance.

The Coalition lost its majority at the 1991 election, and Metherell’s prospects of returning to the ministry were squashed. He resigned from the Liberal Party in late 1991.

When the Liberal Party lost The Entrance by-election, they needed Metherell’s vote to maintain power.

In 1992, Metherell was appointed to a newly-created position with the Environment Protection Agency, vacating his seat. The following by-election was won by Liberal candidate Andrew Humpherson.

Following the by-election, the Legislative Assembly referred the issue to the newly-created Independent Commission Against Corruption, which found that the Premier, Nick Greiner, and his Minister for the Environment had both acted corruptly, which led to their resignations.

Humpherson held Davidson comfortably throughout the 1990s, and in 2000 was appointed to the opposition frontbench.

In the lead-up to the 2007 election, Humpherson was challenged for preselection by Jonathan O’Dea, who won a close-run preselection battle, and went on to win the 2007 election. He has been re-elected three times.

Candidates
Sitting Liberal MP Jonathan O’Dea is not running for re-election.

  • Matt Cross (Liberal)
  • Janine Kitson (Independent)
  • Caroline Atkinson (Greens)
  • Andrew Wills (Sustainable Australia)
  • Karyn Edelstein (Labor)
  • Assessment
    Davidson is a very safe Liberal seat.

    2019 result

    Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
    Jonathan O’Dea Liberal 32,023 65.1 -4.5 64.4
    Joe Von Bornemann Labor 6,645 13.5 +0.9 14.2
    Felicity Davis Greens 6,652 13.5 +0.1 13.5
    Jacob Shteyman Keep Sydney Open 1,984 4.0 +4.0 3.8
    Stephen Molloy Sustainable Australia 1,865 3.8 +3.8 3.7
    Others 0.4
    Informal 1,021 2.0

    2019 two-candidate-preferred result

    Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
    Jonathan O’Dea Liberal 33,440 75.2 -3.6 75.0
    Felicity Davis Greens 11,004 24.8 +3.6 25.0

    2019 two-party-preferred result

    Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
    Jonathan O’Dea Liberal 33,750 75.5 -3.5 74.7
    Joe Von Bornemann Labor 10,967 24.5 +3.5 25.3

    Booth breakdown

    Booths in Davidson have been split into three parts. Polling places in the Northern Beaches council area have been grouped as “east”, while those in Ku-ring-gai have been split into “south” and “west”.

    The Liberal Party won a majority of the two-candidate-preferred vote (against the Greens) in all three areas, ranging from 73.1% in the south to 76.5% in the east.

    Labor came third (second following the redistribution), with a primary vote ranging from 13.3% in the east to 14.1% in the south.

    Voter group ALP prim % LIB 2CP % Total votes % of votes
    West 13.8 76.0 15,852 29.7
    South 14.1 73.1 14,312 26.8
    East 13.3 76.5 8,285 15.5
    Other votes 15.5 73.6 10,001 18.7
    Pre-poll 14.8 77.5 4,922 9.2

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

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    51 COMMENTS

    1. I argued against the name “St Ives” largely because St Ives is the only suburb in the Ku-ring-gai area with the distinction of not having a train station, and because there are too many electors who would never travel to or through St Ives. I suggested the possibility of the name “Gordon”, but defended the name “Davidson” under the precedent of retaining existing names.

      Some examples of districts that have had their names retained despite boundaries shifting away from focusing on their namesake include Londonderry (not “St Marys”), Epping (not “Carlingford”), and Granville (not “Merrylands”). That being said, I did find it a little odd that the panel chose to rename Ku-ring-gai, Seven Hills, and Mulgoa.

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