Division of Blaxland

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

It covers Template:Convert of Labor heartland in the Canterbury Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield, Parramatta and Strathfield areas in Sydney's west. It stretches south from the M4 Motorway at Parramatta to the Hume Highway in western Yagoona. The Labor Party has continuously held the seat since its inception in 1949.

Since 2007 the MP for Blaxland has been Jason Clare, who has served as Minister for Education under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese since 2022. From 1969 to 1996, the seat was held by Paul Keating, who served as Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.

Blaxland is an ethnically diverse and multicultural electorate, with Australia's second highest population of Muslims after neighbouring Watson and the highest share of non-English speakers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of 2021, 20% of electors speak Arabic at home.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

History

File:Gregory Blaxland.jpg

Gregory Blaxland, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1949 and is named after Gregory Blaxland, a farmer and an early Australian explorer of the Blue Mountains in New South Wales.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The division has been a comfortably safe seat for Labor since its creation; western Sydney has been a Labor heartland for over a century. Initially created as a notional Lang Labor seat, the official ALP narrowly won it over former NSW Premier Jack Lang. This is the only election at which (official) Labor has won less than 56 percent of the two-party vote, as well as the only one in which it did not win an outright majority on the first count.

Its most notable member has been Paul Keating, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1991 until 1996 after having previously served as Treasurer of Australia from 1983 until 1991. In 2007, Keating's successor, Michael Hatton, lost preselection for this seat to current member Jason Clare, who was a staffer for former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2017 the division had the highest percentage of "No" responses in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, with 73.9% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "No".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Survey had strong opposition from Muslim communities in the electorate.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref>

Geography

The division is based in the western suburbs of Sydney, including eastern Cumberland, northwestern Canterbury Bankstown and small parts of Parramatta and Strathfield local government areas. It includes the suburbs of Auburn, Berala, Birrong, Chester Hill, Guildford, Guildford West, Holroyd, Merrylands, Merrylands West, Potts Hill, Regents Park, Old Guildford, Rookwood, Sefton, South Granville, Woodpark and Yennora; as well as parts of Bass Hill, Clyde, Granville, Lidcombe, South Wentworthville, Strathfield, Villawood and Yagoona.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It formerly included Bankstown, but it has drifted north and west at various redistributions.

Since 1984 federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Demographics

Blaxland is a socially conservative<ref name=":0" /> and historically working-class electorate<ref name=":2" /> which includes sizable immigrant populations from China, Vietnam, and the Middle East. It has one of the highest Muslim populations in Australia at 29.2%.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> According to the 2016 census, 20.1% of electors spoke Arabic at home,<ref name=":1" /> the highest percentage in Australia. The electorate remains an electoral stronghold for the centre-left Labor Party.

Cultural diversity

2021 Australian census<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Ancestry
Response	Blaxland	NSW	Australia
Lebanese	15.0%	2.2%	1.0%
Chinese	13.6%	7.2%	5.5%
Australian	11.1%	28.6%	29.9%
Vietnamese	9.7%	1.5%	1.3%
English	8.8%	29.9%	33.0%
Country of birth
Response	Blaxland	NSW	Australia
Australia	42.9%	65.4%	66.9%
Vietnam	8.4%	1.2%	1.0%
China	6.6%	3.1%	2.2%
Lebanon	6.1%	0.8%	0.3%
Nepal	3.2%	0.8%	0.5%
Pakistan	2.1%	0.4%	0.4%
Religious affiliation
Response	Blaxland	NSW	Australia
Islam	31.7%	4.3%	3.2%
Catholic	17.0%	22.4%	20.0%
No religion	15.1%	32.8%	38.4%
Buddhism	7.8%	2.8%	2.4%
Language spoken at home
Response	Blaxland	NSW	Australia
English	24.3%	67.6%	72.0%
Arabic	20.0%	2.8%	1.4%
Vietnamese	10.0%	1.5%	1.3%
Mandarin	6.7%	3.4%	2.7%
Cantonese	4.2%	1.8%	1.2%
Urdu	3.3%	0.6%	0.4%

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
Template:Australian party style|	File:Eli James Harrison.jpg	Jim Harrison Template:Small	Labor	10 December 1949 – 29 September 1969	Previously a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Keating Paul BANNER.jpg	Paul Keating Template:Small		25 October 1969 – 23 April 1996	Served as Northern Australia minister under Whitlam and Hawke. Served as Treasurer and Deputy Prime Minister under Hawke. Served as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1996. Resigned to retire from politics
Template:Australian party style|	File:Labor Placeholder.png	Michael Hatton Template:Small		15 June 1996 – 17 October 2007	Lost preselection and retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Jason Clare 2013 (cropped).jpg	Jason Clare Template:Small		24 November 2007 – present	Served as minister under Gillard and Rudd. Incumbent. Currently a minister under Albanese

External links

• Division of Blaxland - Australian Electoral Commission