Division of Lindsay

Lindsay Australian House of Representatives Division
300px The location of the Division of Lindsay, highlighted in red, in Sydney, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1984
MP	Fiona Scott
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Norman Lindsay
Electors	101,241 (2013)
Area	339 km2 (130.9 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer Metropolitan

The Division of Lindsay is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division is named after Sir Norman Lindsay, the prominent Australian artist, writer and sculptor. The division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 11 October 1984 and was first contested at the 1984 federal election.

The division is located in the outer western suburbs of Sydney, and is centred on Penrith. It also includes the suburbs of Castlereagh, Mulgoa and Werrington.

The current Member for Lindsay, since the 2013 federal election, is Fiona Scott, a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

History

The Division of Lindsay has bellwether status. At every federal election since its creation in 1984, its winning member of parliament has been from the party winning government. This has been widely attributed to Lindsay's buildup as an economically sensitive seat. The mortgage belt status of the electorate means fiscal matters such as interest rates, job security, petrol prices and quality of transportation are always critical issues at federal elections. The geographic buildup of the seat consists of Liberal voting areas in the west, Labor voting areas in the east and swing areas in the centre.

Prior to the 1996 election, it was considered a safe Labor seat, as it was located in Labor's longstanding heartland of west Sydney. This ended in 1996, when then member Ross Free was thrown from office by Liberal challenger Jackie Kelly on a swing of nearly 12 percent. Free was one of 13 New South Wales Labor MPs to lose their seats in Labor's heavy defeat that year. However a by-election was called when it was revealed that questions about Kelly's citizenship raised eligibility problems. Kelly won the subsequent by-election with an additional 6.69% swing towards her.

Kelly announced her retirement in 2007 which, together with the 2006 redistribution, made Lindsay vulnerable to the Labor candidate, Penrith Mayor David Bradbury. In his third bid for the seat, Bradbury won with a swing of 9.7% after distribution of preferences, defeating the unsuccessful Liberal candidate Karen Chijoff. Three days before the 2007 federal election Liberal Party supporters, including Jackie Kelly's husband, were caught in Lindsay distributing fake pamphlets in residents' letterboxes which linked the Labor Party to Islamic terrorism. For more details see Lindsay pamphlet scandal. Bradbury narrowly retained the seat in 2010 against Liberal Fiona Scott, but she defeated him at the 2013 election receiving a favourable swing towards her in both elections of 5.16% in 2010 and 4.11% in 2013.

On December 12, 2015 Emma Husar was chosen to be the Labor candidate for the seat of Lindsay for the 2016 federal election.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Ross Free	Labor	1984–1996
	Jackie Kelly	Liberal	1996–2007
	David Bradbury	Labor	2007–2013
	Fiona Scott	Liberal	2013–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Lindsay

Australian federal election, 2013: Lindsay

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Fiona Scott	40,882	46.64	+3.25
	Labor	David Bradbury	34,212	39.03	−5.52
	Palmer United	Andrew Wilcox	4,517	5.15	+5.15
	Greens	David Lenton	2,679	3.06	−1.68
	Christian Democrats	Andrew Green	2,449	2.79	−0.22
	One Nation	Jeffrey Lawson	1,901	2.17	+2.17
	Australia First	Mick Saunders	610	0.70	−0.47
	Stable Population	Geoff Brown	408	0.47	+0.47
Total formal votes			87,658	91.79	−0.04
Informal votes			7,837	8.21	+0.04
Turnout			95,495	94.32	−0.11
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Fiona Scott	46,446	52.99	+4.11
	Labor	David Bradbury	41,212	47.01	−4.11
	Liberal gain from Labor		Swing	+4.11

External links

• Division of Lindsay – Australian Electoral Commission