Division of Swan


The Division of Swan is an Australian electoral division located in Western Australia.

History

The division is named after the Swan River. For several decades, it has been a marginal seat, extending along the Swan and Canning Rivers from the affluent suburbs in the City of South Perth to the west, which typically vote for the Liberal Party, to the City of Belmont to the east and parts of the City of Canning to the south-east, which are more working-class in orientation and typically vote for the Labor Party. A redistribution ahead of the 2010 election added the strongly Labor-voting suburb of Langford, which was previously within Tangney, which made it a notionally Labor seat. Langford was redistributed to Burt in 2016.
The division was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. Historically, the electorate was a country seat extending north to Dongara, east to Merredin and south to the coast. It contracted to an area east of the Darling Range and became a safe Country Party seat. Prior to the 1949 election, its old area became the new seat of Moore, while Swan moved into approximately its present position, although initially extending as far north-east as Midland.
From 2004 to 2007 it was the third most marginal electorate in Australia, after Hindmarsh and Kingston, with the ALP incumbent Kim Wilkie winning 50.08 percent of the two-party-preferred vote in 2004.
At the 2007 election, Liberal candidate Steve Irons won the seat with a swing of 0.19 percent. Irons was the only Coalition challenger to unseat a Labor incumbent at the 2007 election. However, the election came at a very bad time for the state Labor government, which was only polling at 49 percent support at the time the writs were dropped. Irons was re-elected with a slightly increased majority in 2010, making it a fairly safe Liberal seat. Following the 2016 election Labor candidate Tammy Solonec managed to return Swan to marginal status.
Steve Irons retained the seat in the 2019 election. Hannah Beazley contested the seat for Labor but ultimately conceded defeat.

Geography

Swan is bordered by Swan River in the north and west, Canning River and City of Canning in the south, and Roe Highway, Great Eastern Highway and Perth Airport in the east. Suburbs include:

Election results