Electoral district of Port Macquarie

History

Port Macquarie was created in 1988, replacing Oxley (which was then recreated to the north-west of Port Macquarie in 1991). It had historically been a comfortably safe seat for the National Party. It is located in an area that has long been one of the more conservative areas of New South Wales. Dating to its time as Oxley, the Port Macquarie area had been held by a conservative party since the return to single-member seats in 1927, and had been in National hands for all but six years since 1945.

This tradition was broken in 2002, when three-term National member and shadow minister Rob Oakeshott resigned from the party to become an independent. He was handily reelected as an independent in 2003 and 2007. In 2003, he was returned with 82 percent of the two-party vote, making Port Macquarie the safest seat in the legislature.

Oakeshott resigned in 2008 to run in a by-election for the federal seat of Lyne, which was based on Port Macquarie at the time. He was succeeded by longtime friend and staffer Peter Besseling. At the next election, Besseling was swept out by the Nationals' Leslie Williams at the 2011 state election amid the massive Liberal-Nationals Coalition statewide landslide that year. This was due in part to local voter anger at Oakeshott's support for the minority federal Labor government. Despite Oakeshott's personal popularity, the Port Macquarie area was still National heartland. "Traditional" two-party matchups between the Nationals and Labor during Oakeshott and Besseling's tenures had always shown Port Macquarie as a comfortably safe National seat.

Proving this, Williams easily retained Port Macquarie in 2015. Despite suffering a 9.8 percent swing against Labor, she sat on a majority of 19 percent, making Port Macquarie the sixth-safest National seat and the 17th-safest Coalition seat.

In 2020 Williams defected to the Liberals whilst still member for Port Macquarie. It was the first time the seat had been held by a Liberal in its present incarnation. It marked the second time, after Oakeshott, that a member for Port Macquarie has quit the Nationals whilst holding the seat.

Prior to Williams' defection to the Liberals, the Liberal Party had never contested Port Macquarie in its current incarnation since 1988, ceding it to the Nationals. However the Liberals have previously won Port Macquarie in its previous iteration as Oxley in 1962 when then member Les Jordan too defected from the Nationals.

As part of the redistribution of electoral districts for the 2023 state election, a proposal was received to move Lord Howe Island back into the electorate of Sydney. However, the NSW Electoral Commission eventually decided to retain the island within the electorate of Port Macquarie, where it has been included since 1991.

Members for Port Macquarie

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Port Macquarie

References

References

1. "Port Macquarie". [[New South Wales Electoral Commission]].
2. "Nationals to contest Port Macquarie in 2023 - NSW Nationals".
3. (15 December 2020). "Nationals will field a candidate in Port Macquarie against sitting Liberal MP".
4. "Dailytelegraph.com.au {{!".
5. "NSW Elections - Contests for Port Macquarie".
6. "Port Macquarie - NSW Votes 2011 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)".
7. "Port Macquarie - NSW Election 2015 - New South Wales Votes - NSW Election 2015 (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)".
8. "Port Macquarie - NSW Electorate, Candidates, Results".
9. (26 November 2020). "Lord Howe Island's proposed move to Sydney electorate resisted by Port Macquarie MP". Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
10. (20 August 2021). "Electoral Districts Redistribution Panel determination of New South Wales electoral districts". New South Wales Electoral Commission.
11. "Wendy Machin". ABC Q+A.