Division of Brand

Brand Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Brand (green) in Western Australia
Created:	1984
MP:	Gary Gray
Party:	Labor
Namesake:	David Brand
Area:	411 km² (159 sq mi)
Demographic:	Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Brand is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The division was named after Sir David Brand, a former state premier, and is a safe Labor seat held by Gary Gray who first won the seat at the 2007 federal election. The redistribution for the 2010 federal election made the seat slightly more secure for Labor by transferring some 12,000 Mandurah voters to the neighbouring Division of Canning.^[1][2]

According to the 2006 census, Brand is the electorate with the lowest proportion (12.6%) of residents with a university qualification.^[3]

History

The seat was created for the 1984 federal election from parts of the Divisions of Fremantle and Canning to cater for substantial population growth in the Rockingham–Mandurah coastal area south of the state capital Perth. Initially it included country areas to the south and southeast, such as agricultural regions in the Shires of Murray, Waroona and Harvey and the mining town of Collie, and was significantly more marginal for Labor—made abundantly clear by Labor's near-defeat in the seat at the 1996 federal election. The redistribution for the 1998 election saw the electorate become an entirely urban seat, retreating north of the Peel Estuary to roughly its present boundaries, and the seat has been safe Labor ever since.

Brand has had only three members—two of whom had previously been sitting members for other seats. Wendy Fatin had been the member for Canning for a single term prior to the creation of Brand, and went on to win in four successive elections, becoming Minister for the Arts in the early 1990s. Upon her retirement from politics, Kim Beazley, who had been Minister for Defence in the Hawke government until 1990 and had several portfolios before becoming Deputy Prime Minister to Paul Keating in 1995, was preselected for the seat following 16 years as member for the marginal seat of Swan which polling suggested the party was certain to lose. At the 1996 election, Beazley won by just 387 votes against Liberal candidate Penny Hearne, who was later to quit the party and run as an independent against Court minister Doug Shave in the 1996 state election for the seat of Alfred Cove.

Geography

The division consists of enrolled voters resident in the Town of Kwinana, City of Rockingham and the northern section of the City of Mandurah north of the city centre .^[4] Suburbs presently included are:

Kwinana Bertram Calista Hope Valley Leda Medina Orelia Parmelia Wellard

Rockingham Baldivis Cooloongup East Rockingham Golden Bay Hillman Karnup Port Kennedy Rockingham

Safety Bay Secret Harbour Shoalwater Singleton Waikiki Warnbro

Mandurah Greenfields Lakelands Madora Bay Meadow Springs San Remo Silver Sands

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Wendy Fatin	Labor	1984–1996
	Kim Beazley	Labor	1996–2007
	Gary Gray	Labor	2007–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Brand

Australian federal election, 2010: Brand
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Gary Gray	31,832	40.80	-5.53
	Liberal	Donna Gordin	30,731	39.38	+1.28
	Greens	Dawn Jecks	11,504	14.74	+5.88
	Family First	Andrew Newhouse	2,190	2.81	+1.03
	Christian Democrats	Robert Burdett	1,771	2.27	-0.30
Total formal votes			78,028	94.77	-1.36
Informal votes			4,304	5.23	+1.36
Turnout			82,332	93.34	+0.07
Two-candidate preferred result
	Labor	Gary Gray	41,610	53.33	-2.65
	Liberal	Donna Gordin	36,418	46.67	+2.65
	Labor hold		Swing	-2.65

References

1. ^ Australian Electoral Commission 2008 Redistribution of Western Australia into Electoral Divisions Final Report, p. 17 (PDF)
2. ^ Nelson P, Australian Parliamentary Library Background Note: Western Australian redistribution, 2008 (Refer Table 2 for projected party percentages)
3. ^ Brand Australian Broadcasting Corporation: 2010 Election, accessed: 22 August 2010
4. ^ See redistributed boundary at foot of map AEC Boundary Map (PDF)

• Division of Brand - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 32°19′19″S 115°47′53″E / 32.322°S 115.798°E / -32.322; 115.798