Division of Cunningham

This article is about the Australian federal electorate. For the former Queensland state electorate, see Electoral district of Cunningham.

Cunningham Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Cunningham in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election
Created	1949
MP	Alison Byrnes
Party	Labor
Namesake	Allan Cunningham
Electors	117,309 (2022)
Area	519 km2 (200.4 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

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

On 10 October, 2024, the Australian Electoral Commission announced the division of Cunningham will expand to include Primbee, Windang, Cringila, Berkeley as well as the rest of Unanderra and Lake Heights at the next federal election.

History

Allan Cunningham, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1949 and is named for Allan Cunningham, a 19th-century explorer of New South Wales and Queensland.

The division has always been represented by the Australian Labor Party, except following the 2002 by-election when the Greens won the seat; being the first time that the Greens held a seat in the House of Representatives. Labor recovered the seat at the 2004 federal election.

Its most prominent members have been Rex Connor, a senior minister in the Whitlam government, and Stephen Martin, who was Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives from 1993–1996, during the last term of the Keating government. The sitting member, since the 2022 federal election, is Alison Byrnes, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

Boundaries

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.

The division is located on the coast of New South Wales between southern Sydney and Wollongong. It takes in the northern portion of Wollongong, including Corrimal, Figtree and Unanderra. It also includes several of Sydney's outer southern suburbs, including Heathcote and Bundeena. The division covers areas east of the Illawarra escarpment and is bounded by the Tasman Sea to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Royal National Park and to the south by the Wollongong suburbs of Figtree, Cordeaux Heights and Coniston. Although the region is primarily rural, the vast majority of the population is located in the northern outskirts of Wollongong and along the eastern seaboard. The main products and means of livelihood in the area are tourism, tertiary education, steel production, coal mining, brick manufacturing, textiles and dairy farming.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Billy Davies (1884–1956)	Labor	10 December 1949 – 17 February 1956	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Wollongong-Kembla. Died in office
		Victor Kearney (1903–1982)		1 April 1956 – 1 November 1963	Retired
		Rex Connor (1907–1977)		30 November 1963 – 22 August 1977	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Wollongong-Kembla. Served as minister under Whitlam. Died in office
		Stewart West (1934–2023)		15 October 1977 – 8 February 1993	Served as minister under Hawke. Lost preselection and retired
		Stephen Martin (1948–)		13 March 1993 – 16 August 2002	Previously held the Division of Macarthur. Served as Speaker during the Keating Government. Resigned to retire from politics
		Michael Organ (1956–)	Greens	19 October 2002 – 9 October 2004	Lost seat
		Sharon Bird (1962–)	Labor	9 October 2004 – 11 April 2022	Served as minister under Gillard and Rudd. Retired
		Alison Byrnes (1974–)		21 May 2022 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Cunningham

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in New South Wales § Cunningham.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Cunningham

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Alison Byrnes	40,783	40.11	−6.50
	Liberal	Marcus Uren	25,418	25.00	−5.97
	Greens	Dylan Green	22,011	21.65	+6.56
	One Nation	Thomas Grogan	5,218	5.13	+5.13
	United Australia	Ben Britton	4,936	4.85	+1.05
	Liberal Democrats	Michael Glover	2,207	2.17	+2.17
	Australian Citizens	Alexis Garnaut-Miller	1,098	1.08	+1.08
Total formal votes			101,671	94.86	+0.56
Informal votes			5,514	5.14	−0.56
Turnout			107,185	91.48	−1.17
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Alison Byrnes	65,783	64.70	+1.29
	Liberal	Marcus Uren	35,888	35.30	−1.29
	Labor hold		Swing	+1.29

Primary vote results in Cunningham (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Liberal

  Labor

  Greens

  Australian Democrats

  One Nation

  Rex Connor Labor

  Independent

Primary vote results in Cunningham (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

External links

• Division of Cunningham - Australian Electoral Commission
• Wilson, Peter (2002). The Australian Political Almanack.