Division of Whitlam

The Division of Whitlam is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.

Whitlam Australian House of Representatives Division
From the 2016 federal election to 2025 From the 2025 federal election Interactive map of electorate boundaries
Created	2016
MP	Carol Berry
Party	Labor
Namesake	Gough Whitlam
Electors	130,155 (2025)
Area	2,966 km2 (1,145.2 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

Whitlam is a predominantly middle and working-class electorate that covers 2,966 square kilometres in the southern Illawarra and the Southern Highlands.^[1]

The current MP is Carol Berry, a member of the Australian Labor Party. It was previously held by Stephen Jones, also a member of the Australian Labor Party. Jones was born in Wollongong and was a trade union official before first being elected to Parliament in 2010.^[1]

Geography

Federal electoral division boundaries in Australia are 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.^[2]

Whitlam includes Shellharbour City, Wingecarribee Shire and part of Wollongong City, including Dapto.^[3]

Whitlam has a strong working-class character due to the presence of industries such as steelmaking, coal mining and stevedoring in the Illawarra.

History

Gough Whitlam, the division's namesake

The division, previously named Throsby, was renamed in honour of Gough Whitlam, the Prime Minister of Australia from 1972–75, in a February 2016 electoral distribution.^[4] It came into effect from 2 July 2016, the date of the 2016 Australian federal election.

ABC election analyst Antony Green estimated that boundary changes to Throsby would reduce the Australian Labor Party's notional two-party-preferred margin from 7.8 to 6.9 percentage points.^[5] Despite this, the last member for Throsby, Stephen Jones, easily retained the seat with a healthy swing of over six points.

At the 2024 redistribution, Whitlam gained the balance of Wingecarribee Shire from Hume and lost some territory north and east of Lake Illawarra to Cunningham.^[6]

Members

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Stephen Jones (1965–)	Labor	2 July 2016 – 28 March 2025	Previously held the Division of Throsby. Served as minister under Albanese. Retired
		Carol Berry	Labor	3 May 2025 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Whitlam

2025 Australian federal election: Whitlam^[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Carol Berry	42,230	38.63	−3.76
	Liberal	Nathaniel Smith	30,908	28.27	−1.56
	Greens	Jamie Dixon	13,558	12.40	+1.96
	One Nation	Sharon Cousins	8,379	7.66	+0.78
	Independent	Ben Britton	5,246	4.80	+4.80
	Trumpet of Patriots	Angelo Cuda	3,101	2.84	+2.84
	Independent	Paddy Moylan	2,211	2.02	+2.02
	Independent	Glenn Butterfield	1,905	1.74	+1.74
	Libertarian	Raymond Khoury	1,188	1.09	−2.42
	Citizens	Cheryl Hinton	590	0.54	+0.54
Total formal votes			109,316	90.18	−5.06
Informal votes			11,909	9.82	+5.06
Turnout			121,225	93.18	+4.12
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Carol Berry	61,486	56.25	−2.06
	Liberal	Nathaniel Smith	47,830	43.75	+2.06
	Labor hold		Swing	−2.06

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2025 Australian federal election in New South Wales § Whitlam.[edit]