Wills AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision
Interactive map of electorate boundaries from the2025 federal election
Created	1949
MP	Peter Khalil
Party	Labor
Namesake	William Wills
Electors	125,298 (2025)
Area	47 km2 (18.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner metropolitan
Electorates around Wills: Calwell Calwell Scullin Maribyrnong Wills Cooper Maribyrnong Melbourne Melbourne

TheDivision of Wills is anAustralian electoral division ofVictoria. It is currently represented byPeter Khalil of theAustralian Labor Party.

The electorate encompasses most of the suburbs in theCity of Merri-bek in Melbourne's north, includingBrunswick,Brunswick East,Brunswick West,Coburg,Coburg North,Fawkner,Glenroy,Hadfield,Oak Park,Pascoe Vale andPascoe Vale South, as well as some suburbs in theCity of Yarra includingCarlton North,Fitzroy North andPrinces Hill (as of 2025^[update]).

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.^[1]

When the division was created in 1949, it partially replaced the abolishedDivision of Bourke around theCoburg andPascoe Vale area.^[2][3] The new division also includedEssendon which was previously in theDivision of Maribyrnong.^[4] In 1955, it lost the Essendon and Pascoe Vale areas, but gained areas to the south atBrunswick West and part ofBrunswick. In 1968, it regained the Pascoe Vale areas, gained the entire suburb of Brunswick as well asBrunswick East. In 1977, it lost parts of its southern portions, but gainedOak Park to the north-west andPreston andThornbury to the east. In 1984, it gained part ofReservoir nearEdwardes Lake, and the boundaries at Preston and Thornbury were cut back to theEpping railway line.^[2]

In 1989, the division shifted west, losing all areas east of theMerri Creek (Preston, Thornbury and Reservoir) while gaining areas to the west such as Essendon,Essendon Airport,Strathmore andMoonee Ponds. It also gainedFawkner andHadfield to the north. It was further expanded north in 1994 up to theWestern Ring Road to includeGlenroy.^[2]

In 2003, it lost the Essendon and Moonee Ponds areas, but gainedGowanbrae and the part ofCoburg North east of the Merri Creek. It had a minor boundary change in 2010 when it lost a small portion of Strathmore and gained part ofFitzroy North of theCapital City Trail. In 2018, it lost areas west of theMoonee Ponds Creek (which was also the boundary forCity of Moreland), Coburg North east of Merri Creek (which it gained in 2003), and the areas in Fitzroy North. It had another minor boundary change in 2021 when it lost a block of Brunswick East.^[2] In 2024, it lost areas west ofPascoe Vale Road andCityLink (Glenroy, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale South and Brunswick West), but expanded southwards up toAlexandra Parade to includePrinces Hill,Carlton North and Fitzroy North.^[5]

Since the creation of the City of Moreland (nowCity of Merri-bek) in 1994, the division has only included the entirety of the local government area between 2010 and 2018, but contained the majority of it at other times.^[2]

As of the 2024 redistribution, Wills is bordered by Pascoe Vale Road and CityLink to the west, Western Ring Road to the north, and Merri Creek to the east. It consists of the majority of the City of Merri-bek, as well as portions of the cities ofMelbourne,Moonee Valley, andYarra.^[6]

The division was named afterWilliam John Wills ofBurke and Wills fame. It was created in the 1949 redistribution.

Wills has been in Labor hands for its entire existence except between the1992 by-election and1996, when it was held by independentPhil Cleary. Its highest-profile member wasBob Hawke, who wasPrime Minister of Australia from 1983 until 1991. The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (theAustralian Constitution forbids people employed bythe Crown from standing for election). No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.

While Wills remains a traditional Labor stronghold, demographic changes and the rise ofThe Greens has seen Wills, along with the neighbouring seat ofCooper, become Labor-Green contests in recent years. In2016, Labor's margin versus Greens candidate and City of Merri-bek MayorSamantha Ratnam dropped below 5 percent after a swing of more than 10 percent to Ratnam, despite the traditional 2PP margin (versusThe Liberals) of over 20 percent making it one of the safest Labor seats in the country when considered against the Coalition.^[7] Labor's margin over the Greens increased to over 8 percent at the 2019 election, and remained almost unchanged at the2022 Election.

Wills has undergoneinner-citygentrification, particularly inBrunswick, which has led to a surge in support for theGreens in the seat. However, the Labor vote increases the further residents live from the Green heartland of Brunswick.^[8]

Wills has relatively largeimmigrant communities, with populations ofsecond-generationGreek andItalian immigrants. According to the2016 census, 47.8% of electors had both parents born outside of Australia.^[9]

As of 2016, 7.7% of electors spokeItalian, 4.7%Arabic, and 4.5%Greek at home.^[9]

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Bill Bryson (1898–1973)	Labor	10 December 1949 – April 1955	Previously held the Division ofBourke. Lost seat
			Labor (Anti-Communist)	April 1955 – 10 December 1955
		Gordon Bryant (1914–1991)	Labor	10 December 1955 – 19 September 1980	Served as minister underWhitlam. Retired
		Bob Hawke (1929–2019)		18 October 1980 – 20 February 1992	Served asOpposition Leader in 1983. Served asPrime Minister from1983 to 1991. Resigned to retire from politics
		Phil Cleary (1952–)	Independent	11 April 1992 – 25 November 1992	1992 by-election results declared void for holding an office of profit under the Crown, subsequently re-elected in1993. Lost seat
13 March 1993 – 2 March 1996
		Kelvin Thomson (1955–)	Labor	2 March 1996 – 9 May 2016	Retired
		Peter Khalil (1973–)		2 July 2016 – present	Incumbent

• Division of Wills - Australian Electoral Commission

37°43′44″S144°56′35″E / 37.729°S 144.943°E /-37.729; 144.943

• Electoral divisions of Australia
• Electoral divisions of Australia in Victoria
• Constituencies established in 1949
• Bob Hawke
• 1949 establishments in Australia
• City of Merri-bek
• Electoral districts and divisions of Greater Melbourne

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