Division of Reid


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

History

The division is named after the Right Honourable Sir George Reid, a former Premier of New South Wales and the fourth Prime Minister of Australia. The division was proclaimed at the redistribution of 13 September 1922, and was first contested at the 1922 federal election.
Under initial proposals for the 2009 redistribution, the Australian Electoral Commission proposed that the division be abolished. However, in the final proposal, the name "Reid" was retained for a division combining much of the now-abolished Division of Lowe with part of the old Division of Reid.
While the old Reid was historically a safe Labor seat, the 2009 redistribution made Reid far less safe for Labor, with its majority being slashed by six percent. That was partly because of the addition of territory from Lowe, which had been a marginal Labor seat for most of the time since the 1980s. John Murphy, the last member for Lowe, retained Reid for Labor at the 2010 election with just a two percent margin, after suffering an eight percent swing. At the 2013 election, the seat was won for the first time by the Liberal Party of Australia.
Prominent members representing the division include Jack Lang who, like Reid, was a former Premier of New South Wales, Tom Uren, a deputy leader of the Australian Labor Party, and Laurie Ferguson, the son of Jack Ferguson, who was a Deputy Premier of New South Wales, and the brother of Martin Ferguson, a former President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and a minister in the Rudd and Gillard governments. The current Member for Reid, since the 2019 federal election, is Fiona Martin, a member of the Liberal Party of Australia.

Boundaries

The division is located in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, and includes the suburbs of Abbotsford, Breakfast Point, Cabarita, Canada Bay, Chiswick, Concord, Concord West, Five Dock, Flemington, Homebush, Homebush West, Liberty Grove, Mortlake, Newington, North Strathfield, Rhodes, Rodd Point, Russell Lea, Strathfield, Sydney Olympic Park, Wareemba, and Wentworth Point; and includes parts of Ashfield, Auburn, Burwood, Croydon, Drummoyne, Homebush Bay, Lidcombe, Silverwater, and Spectacle Island.

Members

Election results