Thomastown – Victoria 2022

ALP 27.4%

Incumbent MP
Bronwyn Halfpenny, since 2010.

Geography
Northern Melbourne. Thomastown covers the south-western corner of Whittlesea council, including the suburbs of Lalor and Thomastown, and parts of Epping.

Redistribution
Thomastown contracted, losing the remainder of Reservoir to Preston and losing Wollert to Yan Yean.

History
Thomastown was first created for the 1985 election, and has always been held by the ALP.

The seat was first won in 1985 by the ALP’s Beth Gleeson. She held the seat until her death in 1989.

The 1990 Thomastown by-election was won by the ALP’s Peter Batchelor, fighting off a fierce challenge from the Australian Democrats.

Batchelor served as Secretary of the Victorian ALP before he was elected to Parliament. Batchelor held the seat from 1990 to 2010.

Labor candidate Bronwyn Halfpenny won Thomastown in 2010, and she was re-elected in 2014 and 2018.

Candidates

Assessment
Thomastown is a very safe Labor seat.

2018 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Bronwyn Halfpenny Labor 21,397 61.7 -5.0 61.9
Gurdawar Singh Liberal 5,420 15.6 -1.4 15.2
Nikola Stavreski Independent 1,867 5.4 +5.4 5.7
Alahna Desiato Independent 1,552 4.5 +4.5 4.5
Cynthia Smith Greens 1,474 4.2 -1.0 4.1
Kath Larkin Socialists 967 2.8 +2.8 2.9
Tess Nagorka-Tsindos Animal Justice 861 2.5 +2.5 2.5
Ibrahim Saba Independent 593 1.7 +1.7 1.7
David Thirkettle-Watts Reason 554 1.6 +1.6 1.6
Informal 4,847 12.3 +5.2

2018 two-party-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing Redist
Bronwyn Halfpenny Labor 26,639 77.2 -1.3 77.4
Gurdawar Singh Liberal 7,873 22.8 +1.3 22.6

Booth breakdown

Booths have been divided into three areas: north, south-east and south-west.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 76.0% in the north to 80.6% in the south-east.

Voter group ALP 2PP % Total votes % of votes
South-West 79.8 8,268 25.6
South-East 80.6 5,314 16.4
North 76.0 4,670 14.4
Pre-poll 74.0 9,859 30.5
Other votes 77.8 4,247 13.1

Election results in Thomastown at the 2018 Victorian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and independent candidates.

Become a Patron!

5 COMMENTS

  1. @ Nicholas, Lol maybe the Liberals should follow Tim Smith’s advice to forget about seats such as Kew where according to him voters are ” “loud, entitled and privileged” and try and win this seat instead.

  2. I have seen some big billboards in the area from firefighters campaining against Halfpenny for some reason or other.

    There’s no prominent independent running so not sure what that’s all about.

  3. If it’s the UFU, it’s because they have a concerted anti-Dan campaign this time round.

    Not sure where they think that’ll get them though, as any future Liberal government will happily throw them under the bus in favour of the CFA if any of that noise flares up again.

  4. Labor’s win here was pretty inevitable, though Bronwyn’s margin has been cut quite a bit (similar to what you can see in other Labor seats). The 2PP is currently at an 11% swing to the Liberals, and there’s a 9.5% drop in Labor’s primary. Everyone else was able to increase their vote by at least a little bit. Which I’m sure was helped by the absence of the multiple independents who ran last time.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here