Division of Lyne

Lyne Australian House of Representatives Division
Error creating thumbnail: File with dimensions greater than 25 MP The location of the Division of Lyne, highlighted in red, in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election.
Created	1949
MP	David Gillespie
Party	The Nationals
Namesake	Sir William Lyne
Electors	97,127 (2013)
Area	11,991 km2 (4,629.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural

The Division of Lyne is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division is named after Sir William Lyne, Premier of New South Wales at the time of Federation and subsequently a minister in early Australian conservative governments. William Lyne was commissioned by the first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun to form the inaugural Federal Government. He was unable to attract sufficient support to form a cabinet and returned the commission. The unsuccessful commissioning of Lyne is known as The Hopetoun Blunder.

The division covers the local government areas of Gloucester, City of greater Taree, parts of Port Macquarie-Hastings and Great Lakes shire

The current Member for Lyne, since the 2013 federal election, is David Gillespie, a member of the The Nationals.

History

The Division of Lyne was created in a redistribution in 1949 and was represented by the National Party (previously the Country Party and National Country Party) for almost 60 years. This reflects the area's history as a strongly conservative and rural region. The area has recently undergone significant demographic changes with the arrival of a large number of retired people and city dwellers seeking a sea-change. Despite these changes the Australian Labor Party has made little headway in increasing its vote.

In 1993, after the exclusion of minor candidates, the Nationals' Mark Vaile led over the Liberals by only 233 votes on the third count. Labor had taken a large first-count lead which it held for most of the night, but Vaile won after Liberal preferences flowed overwhelmingly to him. However, had 120 votes gone the other way, the Liberals would have taken the seat. Vaile later went on to become leader of the Nationals and Deputy Prime Minister during the latter stages of the Howard Government. He retired in July 2008, triggering a by-election later that year. The seat was lost to independent candidate and former state MP Rob Oakeshott, who retained the seat at the 2010 election. Oakeshott announced on 26 June 2013 that he would not contest the 2013 election. The Nationals' candidate David Gillespie easily regained the seat.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Jim Eggins	Country	1949–1952
	Philip Lucock	Country	1952–1975
		National Country	1975–1980
	Bruce Cowan	National Country	1980–1982
		National	1982–1993
	Mark Vaile	National	1993–2008
	Rob Oakeshott	Independent	2008–2013
	David Gillespie	National	2013–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Lyne

Australian federal election, 2013: Lyne

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	David Gillespie	45,871	53.19	+18.80
	Labor	Peter Alley	18,352	21.28	+7.79
	Independent	Steve Attkins	6,561	7.61	+7.61
	Greens	Ian Oxenford	5,340	6.19	+1.90
	Palmer United	Troy Wilkie	4,727	5.48	+5.48
	One Nation	Craig Huth	2,208	2.56	+2.56
	Christian Democrats	John Klose	2,054	2.38	+2.38
	Katter's Australian	Brian Buckley Clare	814	0.94	+0.94
	CEC	Michael Gough	318	0.37	+0.37
Total formal votes			86,245	93.69	−2.58
Informal votes			5,809	6.31	+2.58
Turnout			92,054	94.78	−0.60
Two-party-preferred result
	National	David Gillespie	55,857	64.77	+2.32
	Labor	Peter Alley	30,388	35.23	−2.32
	National gain from Independent		Swing	N/A

External links

• Division of Lyne - Australian Electoral Commission