The Division of Charlton was an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Matthew Charlton, who was Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1922–28. The division was located in the Hunter region of New South Wales, including the coal-mining towns of Cardiff and Wallsend as well as Toronto, Morisset, Cooranbong, Brightwaters, Windermere Park, Sunshine, Glendale and Warners Bay. The last Member for Charlton, from the 2013 federal election, was Pat Conroy, a member of the Australian Labor Party. Under the original proposed redistribution for the next federal election, the old Division of Hunter was to be abolished. Since Hunter is an original Federation electorate, the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines for redistributions required it to make every effort to preserve the Hunter name. To that end, the Commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter. The final plan, however, saw Charlton abolished, with Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory. Although most of the new Hunter's voters came from the former Charlton, Conroy stood down in favour of the member for the old Hunter, Joel Fitzgibbon. Conroy contested and won the neighbouring seat of Shortland.
History
Charlton was first created in 1984. Much of its territory came from Hunter, which Matthew Charlton held from 1910 to 1928. From its inception, it had been a safe seat for Labor. The Hunter Region is one of the few areas outside capital cities where Labor has consistently done well. The most prominent members were Bob Brown, a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, and Greg Combet, a former secretary of the ACTU from 2000 to 2007, and a minister in the Gillard and Rudd governments. During the 2013 federal election campaign, the Liberal Party of Australia endorsed Kevin Baker as their candidate for the division. However, Baker was forced to end his campaign on 21 August 2013 due to controversy over inappropriate content on a car enthusiasts' website that he hosted. The Australian Electoral Commission had closed candidate nominations by the time Baker abandoned his campaign. The Liberals did not field a replacement candidate in the election. However, Baker was still listed on ballot papers as the Liberal candidate, as they had already been printed at the time of Baker's resignation from the campaign; in excess of electors gave him their first preference vote.
