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| Bennelong AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
  Interactive map of electorate boundaries from the2025 federal election | |||||||||||||||
| Created | 1949 | ||||||||||||||
| MP | Jerome Laxale | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Labor | ||||||||||||||
| Namesake | Woollarawarre Bennelong | ||||||||||||||
| Electors | 125,986 (2025) | ||||||||||||||
| Area | 60 km2 (23.2 sq mi) | ||||||||||||||
| Demographic | Inner metropolitan | ||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| Footnotes | |||||||||||||||
TheDivision of Bennelong is anAustralian electoral division in thestate ofNew South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named afterWoollarawarre Bennelong, anAboriginal man befriended by the firstGovernor of New South Wales,Arthur Phillip. The seat has been represented byJerome Laxale of theLabor Party since the2022 federal election.
Bennelong covers 60 km2 of theNorthern Sydney region, including all of thelocal government areas ofRyde,Lane Cove andHunter's Hill, and parts ofWilloughby andParramatta.[1]
It was represented from1974 until2007 byJohn Howard, who served as thePrime Minister of Australia from1996 until 2007. As well as his government then being defeated, Howard also became the second sitting Australian Prime Minister to lose his own seat. Though historically a fairly safe Liberal seat, modern-day electoral boundaries and demographic changes have seen Bennelong become an increasingly marginal seat. The 2007 outcome in Bennelong resulted inLabor candidateMaxine McKew winning the seat on a thin 1.4-point margin after a close contest, making her the first Labor MP for Bennelong. After a single term McKew was defeated by Liberal candidateJohn Alexander in2010, who retained it (not including a short vacancy in 2017) until the 2022 general election.
The seat was vacant from 11 November 2017 when Alexander resigned amid the2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis after confirming he was a dual citizen and therefore ineligible to sit in parliament. Despite a significant swing against him, Alexander was re-elected at the2017 Bennelong by-election on 16 December. Alexander retired before the2022 election, which was won by Laxale.
Bennelong covers 60 km2 of theNorthern Sydney region, including all of thelocal government areas ofRyde,Lane Cove andHunter's Hill, and parts ofWilloughby andParramatta.[1] It includes the suburbs ofDenistone,Denistone East,Denistone West,East Ryde,Eastwood,Gladesville,Greenwich,Hunters Hill,Lane Cove,Lane Cove North,Lane Cove West,Linley Point,Longueville,Macquarie Park,Marsfield,Meadowbank,Melrose Park,North Ryde,Putney,Riverview,Ryde,Tennyson Point,West Ryde andWoolwich; as well as parts ofChatswood andChatswood West.
Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian 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.[2]
When the Division of Bennelong was created in 1949, it covered mainly the suburbs ofRyde,Hunters Hill andLane Cove, all of which were (and still are) relatively affluent areas. It was originally created as a notionally marginal Liberal seat. However, the Liberal margin blew out in the Coalition'slandslide victory that year, and for most of the next half-century it was a fairly safe to safe Liberal seat.
The seat's first member wasSir John Cramer, a minister in theMenzies government. In 1974, he handed the seat toJohn Howard, a minister in theFraser government, andLeader of the Opposition from 1985 to 1989 and 1995 to 1996 before becomingPrime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007.
From 1949 to 1996, the Liberal hold on the seat was only seriously threatened four times; those were the only times that the seat was marginal againstLabor. From 1998 onward, Bennelong became increasingly marginal, and this has been attributed to two factors. Firstly, the electoral boundary of Bennelong has been redrawn ("redistributed") numerous times, pushing it further westward into Labor-friendly territory nearParramatta. Successive redistributions eliminated Lane Cove and Hunters Hill in the east and incorporated Eastwood, Epping, Carlingford and middle-classErmington in the north and west. Secondly, the demographic has changed as well: since the early 1990s, Eastwood and surrounding suburbs have seen an influx of migrants fromChina,Hong Kong,South Korea andIndia, who are relatively affluent and conservative, but are sensitive towards political policies onimmigration andmulticulturalism.[3] The 2024 redistribution moved the electorate to the east so it now includes much of its original territory inLane Cove.[4]
In 1998, Prime MinisterJohn Howard finished just short of a majority on the first count in the seat, and was only assured of re-election on the ninth count. He ultimately won a fairly comfortable 56 percent of the two-party-preferred vote.
In 2004, for the second time since becoming prime minister, Howard came up short of a majority in the first count for the seat. He was assured of re-election on the third count, ultimately winning 53.3 percent of the two-party-preferred vote. The two-party-preferred vote for the Liberals declined 3.4% in the2004 election, contrary to a strong national trend to theCoalition (and a particularly strong one to the Coalition in outer-suburban metropolitan seats), making Bennelong a marginal seat at that time, with a margin of just 4.3 points.The Greens increased their vote at this election by 12.34% to 16.37% at this election, owing to the pre-selection of the high-profileAndrew Wilkie as candidate. There was also acampaign, led byJohn Valder, formerPresident of the Liberal Party, and supported by Wilkie, to oppose the re-election ofHoward as member for Bennelong in the2004 Australian federal election, which, if it were successful, would have made him ineligible to be prime minister.[5]
In the2007 election, the incumbent Member for Bennelong, then-Prime Minister John Howard, lost the seat to Labor candidateMaxine McKew, after holding it for 33 years. This was only the second time in Australian history that an incumbent prime minister had been defeated in his own electorate, the first beingStanley Bruce in 1929. The election marked the first time a Labor candidate won, and also the first time a woman won the seat.
After the 2004 election, Howard sat on a margin of four points, placing Bennelong just barely on the edge of seats that would fall to Labor in the event of a uniform swing that delivered it government. Though, the 2006 redistribution pushed this margin slightly further into Labor territory, due to the inclusion of the predominantly working-class and public-housing suburb of Ermington in Bennelong's boundaries.[6]
As expected, the contest was very tight, and many media outlets listed Bennelong as a Labor gain on election night. In his nationwide speech conceding the election, Howard admitted it was "very likely" he had lost his own seat.[7] Following initial reluctance to officially call the outcome (despite confidence of success),[8][9] McKew declared victory officially on 1 December.[10][11] At that time, theAustralian Electoral Commission showed McKew ahead on atwo-candidate-preferred basis, by 43,272 votes to 41,159;[12] however, pre-poll, postal and absent votes were still being counted and could possibly have affected the outcome.
Howard formally conceded defeat in Bennelong on 12 December.[13] The Electoral Commission declared the seat, with 44,685 votes for McKew to 42,251 for Howard. McKew led for most of the night, and ultimately won on the 14th count after over three-quarters of Green preferences flowed to her. Voter turnout in Bennelong was 95%.[14]
For the2010 federal election, the Liberal Party pre-selected formertennis professional and tenniscommentatorJohn Alexander to contest the marginal seat. McKew recontested the seat for Labor.[15] After a long and high-profile campaign, Alexander won the seat back from Labor; he increased both the Liberals' two-party-preferred and primary vote for the first time since 2001, and gained the largest swing towards the Liberals since 1996. Alexander defeated McKew with a two-party-preferred swing of 4.52 points (cf. the 2.58-point national swing in the 2010 federal election), contributing to theGillard government's loss of its parliamentary majority.[16]
McKew said Labor had failed to repeat the professional and targeted campaign of 2007. She also conceded that the removal ofKevin Rudd as Prime Minister had been a factor in the party's poor showing, along with the Government's dumping of the emissions trading scheme and a lacklustre national campaign.[17]
Alexander picked up a four-percent swing in the2013 federal election as the Coalition returned to government, returning Bennelong to its traditional status as a safe Liberal seat. He was reelected in2016 with a small swing in his favour, even as the Coalition barely won a second term. On 11 November 2017, Alexander resigned his seat over questions of his eligibility to stand under section 44 of theConstitution,[18] necessitating aby-election.
Amid the2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis, the trigger for the by-election was the resignation ofLiberal incumbentJohn Alexander effective 11 November 2017. A few weeks following the increased clarity which came from thejudgment of theHigh Court of Australia sitting as theCourt of Disputed Returns on 27 October 2017 further determining dual citizenship ineligibility underSection 44 of the Constitution, Alexander resigned due to a belief that he may have held British citizenship at the time of his nomination and election, meaning he would be ineligible under Section 44 of the Constitution to sit in the Parliament of Australia. Alexander renounced any British citizenship he may have held, or otherwise been eligible for, in order to nominate for election again.[19]
Alexander won the2017 Bennelong by-election despite an approximate five percenttwo-partyswing away toLabor candidateKristina Keneally which made the seat marginal.[20]
Alexander was not challenged for preselection for the 2019 federal election. With a margin of 9.7% from the 2016 election, Alexander competed against high profile neurosurgeonBrian Owler, who formerly chaired the Australian Medical Association and has worked closely with the NSW Government to be the face of a successful anti-speeding campaign for road safety. Owler's eminent persona was aided by several inflammatory remarks from Alexander, ultimately leading to a 2.8-point swing to Labor, which reduced theLiberal Party's hold on the seat to a margin of 6.9 points. Alexander, who was standing for the 5th time as candidate for Bennelong, is widely regarded to have built a strong personal vote in the seat. This has led to Bennelong having a relatively stable two-party-preferred result from the last three federal elections, in the Coalition's favour. Alexander declared victory shortly after counting had passed 50%.
On 12 November 2021 Alexander revealed that he would not contest the seat at the forthcoming federal election. ABC election analystAntony Green pointed to the loss of Alexander's high personal vote as a vulnerability for the Coalition, giving the Labor Party a strong chance to reclaim the seat after McKew was unseated by Alexander in 2010. FormerRyde mayor and Labor candidateJerome Laxale took the seat from the Liberals with a 7.9% swing in his favour, making him the second Labor member ever to win it.[21] The loss of the seat has been attributed to the notably large swings against the Liberal Party amongChinese Australian voters which has cost the Liberal Party many key seats.[22]
Prior to the2025 federal election, a redistribution shifted Bennelong eastward away fromCarlingford andEpping. In their place, Bennelong absorbed territory previously in the abolishedseat of North Sydney, gaining Liberal-friendly suburbs such asLane Cove,Riverview,Greenwich andHunters Hill. Some of this area had been part of Bennelong until the 1990s. This made the seat notionally Liberal with a margin of 0.04 points. However, amid the Liberals' collapse in metropolitan Australia, Laxale was re-elected with a 9.3-point two-party swing towards him. This was easily the strongest result for Labor in the seat's history, and was just a few thousand votes short of making Bennelong a safe Labor seat, making Laxale the first Labor member to win a second term in Bennelong.[23]
| Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Sir John Cramer (1896–1994) | Liberal | 10 December 1949 – 11 April 1974 | Served as minister underMenzies. Retired. Last person born beforeFederation to serve in theHouse of Representatives | |
 | John Howard (1939–) | 18 May 1974 – 24 November 2007 | Served as minister underFraser. Served asOpposition Leader from 1985 to 1989, and from 1995 to 1996. Served asPrime Minister from1996 to 2007. Lost seat | ||
 | Maxine McKew (1953–) | Labor | 24 November 2007 – 21 August 2010 | Lost seat | |
 | John Alexander (1951–) | Liberal | 21 August 2010 – 11 November 2017 | Resigned due todual citizenship. Subsequently re-elected. Retired | |
| 16 December 2017 – 11 April 2022 | |||||
 | Jerome Laxale (1983–) | Labor | 21 May 2022 – present | Incumbent | |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | Jerome Laxale | 49,801 | 45.35 | +13.26 | |
| Liberal | Scott Yung | 38,510 | 35.07 | −5.61 | |
| Greens | Adam Hart | 12,931 | 11.78 | +1.44 | |
| One Nation | Craig Bennett | 2,534 | 2.31 | +0.77 | |
| Family First | Eric Chan | 1,934 | 1.76 | +1.76 | |
| Fusion | John August | 1,675 | 1.53 | +0.12 | |
| Trumpet of Patriots | Robert Nalbandian | 1,621 | 1.48 | +1.48 | |
| HEART | Barry Devine | 806 | 0.73 | +0.56 | |
| Total formal votes | 109,812 | 93.85 | −0.51 | ||
| Informal votes | 7,196 | 6.15 | +0.51 | ||
| Turnout | 117,008 | 92.90 | +2.25 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Jerome Laxale | 65,076 | 59.26 | +9.30 | |
| Liberal | Scott Yung | 44,736 | 40.74 | −9.30 | |
| Labornotional gain fromLiberal | Swing | +9.30 | |||
As of the 2021 Census significant statistics included a population of 191,219 with a median age of 37 years old with a median weekly household income of $2,124.
Further information can be found from recent Censuses, most recently theAustralian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census profile.[25]
| 2021 Australian census[26] | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ancestry | |||
| Response | Bennelong | NSW | Australia |
| Chinese | 28.8% | 7.2% | 5.5% |
| English | 16.2% | 29.8% | 33.0% |
| Australian | 15.5% | 28.6% | 29.9% |
| Korean | 6.1% | 0.9% | 0.5% |
| Irish | 5.6% | 9.1% | 9.5% |
| Country of birth | |||
| Response | Bennelong | NSW | Australia |
| Australia | 46.1% | 65.4% | 66.9% |
| China | 13.7% | 3.1% | 2.2% |
| India | 4.7% | 2.6% | 2.6% |
| South Korea | 4.6% | 0.7% | 0.4% |
| Hong Kong | 3.3% | 0.6% | 0.4% |
| Philippines | 1.9% | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| Religious affiliation | |||
| Response | Bennelong | NSW | Australia |
| No religion | 37.1% | 32.8% | 38.4% |
| Catholicism | 20.8% | 22.4% | 20.0% |
| Anglican | 6.8% | 11.9% | 9.8% |
| Hinduism | 5.1% | 3.4% | 2.7% |
| Language spoken at home | |||
| English | 43.6% | 67.6% | 72.0% |
| Mandarin | 15.3% | 3.4% | 2.7% |
| Cantonese | 8.4% | 1.8% | 1.2% |
| Korean | 5.7% | 0.8% | 0.5% |
| Hindi | 1.9% | 1.0% | 0.8% |
| Arabic | 1.6% | 2.8% | 1.4% |
33°47′35″S151°05′56″E / 33.793°S 151.099°E /-33.793; 151.099