Division of Hunter

The Division of Hunter is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in northern rural New South Wales. It covers much of the Hunter Valley region, including the towns of Singleton, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Cessnock and Denman. The Division was one of the original 75 divisions created for the first Federal election in 1901. The Division was named after Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales.

Hunter Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Hunter (green) within New South Wales
Created	1901
MP	Dan Repacholi
Party	Labor
Namesake	John Hunter
Area	20,111 km2 (7,764.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

Captain John Hunter

In 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission said that the Division of Hunter would be abolished at the next election. Because of population changes, New South Wales loses a division, and a new one will be created in Western Australia. The boundaries of many NSW divisions will have to be changed, and the area covered by Hunter will be added to nearby divisions. Under AEC rules however, names of the original 1901 divisions should be kept, so the Division of Charlton will be renamed Hunter.^[1][2]

Members

Member		Party	Term
	(Sir) Edmund Barton	Protectionist	1901–1903
	Frank Liddell	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1903–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
	Matthew Charlton	Labor	1910–1928
	Rowley James	Labor	1928–1931
		Lang Labor	1931–1936
		Labor	1936–1958
	H.V. Evatt	Labor	1958–1960
	Bert James	Labor	1960–1980
	Bob Brown	Labor	1980–1984
	Eric Fitzgibbon	Labor	1984–1996
	Joel Fitzgibbon	Labor	1996–2022
	Dan Repacholi	Labor	2022–present

The seat has been held by the Labor since 1910. Famous members include the first Prime Minister Edmund Barton, and Opposition Leaders Matthew Charlton and Dr H.V. Evatt. Joel Fitzgibbon, Minister for Defence, took over the seat when his father, Eric Fitgibbon retired in 1996.

Election results

2022 Australian federal election: Hunter[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Dan Repacholi	41,514	38.54	+0.97
	National	James Thomson	29,540	27.42	+3.95
	One Nation	Dale McNamara	10,759	9.99	−11.60
	Greens	Janet Murray	9,562	8.88	+2.01
	Independent	Stuart Bonds	6,126	5.69	+5.69
	United Australia	Geoff Passfield	4,370	4.06	−0.26
	Animal Justice	Victoria Davies	2,469	2.29	−0.91
	Independent	Scott Laruffa	1,929	1.79	+1.79
	Informed Medical Options	Cathy Townsend	1,458	1.35	+1.35
Total formal votes			107,727	92.37	+1.34
Informal votes			8,901	7.63	−1.34
Turnout			116,628	90.85	−1.44
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Dan Repacholi	58,200	54.03	+1.05
	National	James Thomson	49,527	45.97	−1.05
	Labor hold		Swing	+1.05