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Groom Australian House of Representatives Division | |
---|---|
Map Interactive map of boundaries | |
Created | 1984 |
MP | Garth Hamilton |
Party | Liberal National |
Namesake | Sir Littleton Groom |
Electors | 110,932 (2022) |
Area | 5,586 km2 (2,156.8 sq mi) |
Demographic | Provincial |
The Division of Groom is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland.
Groom is an agricultural electorate located on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland. It includes the regional city of Toowoomba and rural communities to the west and south. [1]
The current MP is Garth Hamilton, a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland.
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. [2]
The division was created in 1984 as essentially a reconfigured version of the old Division of Darling Downs, which had existed since Federation. It is named in honour of Sir Littleton Groom, who represented Darling Downs with only one short break from 1901 to 1936 and served as Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives.
It is located in the rural areas west of Brisbane and is centred on the city of Toowoomba, Australia's second largest inland city. Other centres include Oakey and Pittsworth.
The seat has never elected a Labor member in either of its incarnations as Darling Downs or Groom. The Coalition's hold on the seat has only been even remotely threatened once in its present incarnation; in 2007, the Liberals were held to 58.2 percent of the two-party vote despite winning enough primary votes to retain the seat outright. This is the only time that the Coalition has won less than 62 percent of the two-party vote in the seat's present incarnation. While Toowoomba itself (particularly, the northern suburbs) occasionally votes for Labor, it is nowhere near enough to overcome the conservative bent of the rural areas.
Groom's electors are socially conservative. In 2017, it was one of only three electorates in Queensland to vote against the Marriage Survey.
Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | Tom McVeigh (1930–) | Nationals | 1 December 1984 – 29 February 1988 | Previously held the Division of Darling Downs. Resigned to retire from politics. Son is John McVeigh | |
![]() | Bill Taylor (1938–) | Liberal | 9 April 1988 – 31 August 1998 | Retired | |
![]() | Ian Macfarlane (1955–) | 3 October 1998 – 19 July 2010 | Served as minister under Howard and Abbott. Retired | ||
Liberal National | 19 July 2010 – 9 May 2016 | ||||
![]() | John McVeigh (1965–) | 2 July 2016 – 18 September 2020 | Previously held the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Toowoomba South. Served as minister under Turnbull. Resigned to retire from politics. Father is Tom McVeigh | ||
![]() | Garth Hamilton (1979–) | 28 November 2020 – present | Incumbent |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal National | Garth Hamilton | 41,971 | 43.72 | −9.62 | |
Labor | Gen Allpass | 17,985 | 18.73 | +0.07 | |
One Nation | Grant Abraham | 9,181 | 9.56 | −3.53 | |
Independent | Suzie Holt | 7,932 | 8.26 | +8.26 | |
Independent | Kirstie Smolenski | 6,858 | 7.14 | +7.14 | |
Greens | Mickey Berry | 5,616 | 5.85 | −2.11 | |
United Australia | Melissa Bannister | 4,922 | 5.13 | +1.17 | |
Australian Federation | Ryan Otto | 1,539 | 1.60 | +1.60 | |
Total formal votes | 96,004 | 95.28 | −1.52 | ||
Informal votes | 4,758 | 4.72 | +1.52 | ||
Turnout | 100,762 | 90.88 | −2.17 | ||
Notional two-party-preferred count | |||||
Liberal National | Garth Hamilton | 61,610 | 64.17 | −6.31 | |
Labor | Gen Allpass | 34,394 | 35.83 | +6.31 | |
Two-candidate-preferred result | |||||
Liberal National | Garth Hamilton | 54,612 | 56.89 | −13.60 | |
Independent | Suzie Holt | 41,392 | 43.11 | +43.11 | |
Liberal National hold |
![]() | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
![]() | Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org. |
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