Division of Tangney


The Division of Tangney is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The Division was named after Dame Dorothy Tangney, the first female member of the Australian Senate, and is at present a safe Liberal seat. It is currently held by Ben Morton a former state director of the Liberal Party.
Dennis Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 election. Jensen ran against the endorsed Liberal candidate Ben Morton and lost.

History

Tangney was established at the Western Australia redistribution of 19 April 1974 and was first contested at the 1974 election. Until the 1984 redistribution, the seat included a much wider area including the traditional Labor areas of Spearwood and Gosnells, and the seat was a bellwether seat represented by the party of government. In 1984, the seat was confined to its present borders and has been held by the Liberal Party ever since.
It was first held by John Dawkins, later a Treasurer of Australia, and was held from 1993 until 2004 by Daryl Williams, former Attorney-General of Australia and Rhodes Scholar.
The seat briefly made national headlines in August 2006 when Matt Brown, once a chief-of-staff to former Defence Minister Robert Hill, defeated incumbent MP Dr Dennis Jensen for preselection, despite support for the latter from John Howard. However, on 7 October 2006, the decision was overturned by the Liberals' Western Australian state council and Jensen was once again confirmed as the candidate for the 2007 election.
Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election. Announced on 3 April 2016, it was revealed he had written an unpublished book that included graphic sex scenes, titled The Skywarriors. Jensen labelled it "dirty tricks" and an "absolute smear campaign". Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection. On 2 July 2016 Ben Morton won the Tangney seat with 61.5% of the vote, losing 1.5% towards the Labor Party.

Geography

The seat presently contains most of the City of Melville, a part of the City of Canning and a small portion of the City of Cockburn and is located south of the Swan and Canning rivers. Suburbs presently included are:
City of Melville
City of Canning
City of Cockburn

Election results