Division of Barton
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use Australian English Template:Infobox Australian Electorate
The Division of Barton is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the inner south west of Sydney. It is currently represented by Labor MP Ash Ambihaipahar.
History
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The division was created in 1922 and is named for Sir Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia. For much of its history, Barton has been a marginal seat, held by the Australian Labor Party for most of the time after 1940, but won by the Liberals (or their predecessors) at "high-tide" elections.
Barton's most prominent member has been Dr H. V. Evatt, who was Leader of the Labor Party between 1951 and 1960. After seeing his majority more than halved in 1949, and nearly being defeated in 1951 and 1955, he transferred to the safe seat of Hunter in 1958. A former minister in the Hawke and Keating ministries, Gary Punch, held the seat for Labor between 1983 and 1996. Robert McClelland, Attorney-General in the Rudd and Gillard governments, held the seat for Labor between 1996 and 2013.
Nickolas Varvaris won the seat for the Liberals at the 2013 federal election, achieving a swing of 7.2 points to finish with a two-party-preferred vote of just 50.3 percent, which made Barton the Coalition government's most marginal seat,[1] but was defeated in 2016 by Labor’s former state deputy opposition leader Linda Burney,[2] who held it unto her retirement at the 2025 election, when it was won by Ash Ambihaipahar, also Labor.
The Division of Barton is linked to one of the more unusual episodes in Australian politics. The first member for Barton, Labor's Frederick McDonald, disappeared after his 1925 defeat by Nationalist Thomas Ley, and it is now believed that Ley had him murdered.[3] After being found guilty of an unrelated murder in England in 1947, Ley was declared insane[4] and died in Broadmoor Asylum four months later.
Boundaries
The division has always been based in the inner southern suburbs of Sydney. It has traditionally been bordered to the east by Botany Bay, but, as of 2025, the coastal strip has been part of Kingsford Smith. It currently includes the suburbs of Allawah, Arncliffe, Banksia, Bardwell Park, Bardwell Valley, Bexley, Bexley North, Carlton, Clemton Park, Earlwood, Kingsgrove, Kogarah, Kogarah Bay, Rockdale, Turrella, Undercliffe, and Wolli Creek; as well as parts of Belmore, Beverly Hills, Campsie, Canterbury, Hurstville, Ramsgate, Roselands and Penshurst.[5]
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.[6]
Demographics
| 2021 Australian census[7] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestry | |||
| Response | Barton | NSW | Australia |
| Chinese | 19.0% | 7.2% | 5.5% |
| Australian | 12.5% | 29.8% | 33.0% |
| Greek | 9.6% | 1.8% | 1.7% |
| Lebanese | 6.1% | 2.2% | 1.0% |
| Country of birth | |||
| Response | Barton | NSW | Australia |
| Australia | 45.8% | 65.4% | 66.9% |
| China | 9.7% | 3.1% | 2.2% |
| Nepal | 4.7% | 0.8% | 0.5% |
| Greece | 3.0% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Lebanon | 2.4% | 0.8% | 0.3% |
| Philippines | 2.0% | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| Religious affiliation | |||
| Response | Barton | NSW | Australia |
| No religion | 28.9% | 32.8% | 38.4% |
| Catholicism | 19.5% | 22.4% | 20.0% |
| Eastern Orthodoxy | 12.8% | 2.5% | 2.1% |
| Islam | 8.2% | 4.3% | 3.2% |
| Language spoken at home | |||
| English | 37.1% | 67.6% | 72.0% |
| Mandarin | 9.2% | 3.4% | 2.7% |
| Greek | 7.3% | 1.0% | 0.9% |
| Arabic | 6.8% | 2.8% | 1.4% |
| Cantonese | 6.0% | 1.8% | 1.2% |
| Nepali | 4.7% | 0.8% | 0.5% |
Members
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Election results
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References
External links
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- ↑ 2013 federal election results: AEC
- ↑ Barton - 2016 federal election: Antony Green ABC
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