Electoral district of Port Macquarie

Port Macquarie New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Interactive map of district boundaries from the 2023 state election
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1988–present
MP	Leslie Williams
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Port Macquarie
Electors	59,974 (2019)
Area	1,459.69 km2 (563.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial and rural
Electorates around Port Macquarie: Oxley Oxley Pacific Ocean Oxley Port Macquarie Pacific Ocean Myall Lakes Myall Lakes Pacific Ocean

Port Macquarie is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is represented by Leslie Williams of the Liberal Party.

It presently includes parts of coastal Port Macquarie-Hastings City Council (including Port Macquarie, Dunbogan, Bonny Hills, Kendall, Kew, Laurieton, North Haven and West Haven) and the northeast of the Mid-Coast Council (including Coopernook, Lansdowne, Moorland, Hannam Vale, Johns River and Stewarts River). Since 1991, the district also includes Lord Howe Island. ^[1]

While the Mid North Coast has been heavily conservative-voting throughout history, Port Macquarie is particularly conservative even by Mid North Coast standards. Labor has never won a federal or state seat that includes Port Macquarie or the surrounding suburbs. Port Macquarie was originally a National seat, but has been a Liberal seat since 2020.

History

Port Macquarie was created in 1988, replacing Oxley (which was recreated in 1991). It has historically been a comfortably safe seat for the National Party and has remained a centre-right seat for its entire existence. Dating to its time as Oxley, the Port Macquarie area had been held by a conservative party since the return to single-member seats in 1927, and had been in National hands for all but six years since 1945.

This tradition was broken in 2002, when three-term National member and shadow minister Rob Oakeshott resigned from the party to become an independent. He was handily reelected as an independent in 2003 and 2007. In 2003, he was returned with 82 percent of the two-party vote, making Port Macquarie the safest seat in the legislature.

Oakeshott resigned in 2008 to run in a by-election for the federal seat of Lyne, which was based on Port Macquarie at the time. He was succeeded by longtime friend and staffer Peter Besseling.

However, Besseling was swept out by the Nationals' Leslie Williams at the 2011 state election amid the massive National wave that swept through rural NSW that year. This was due in part to voter anger at Oakeshott's support for the minority federal Labor government. Despite Oakeshott's personal popularity, the Port Macquarie area was still National heartland. "Traditional" two-party matchups between the Nationals and Labor during Oakeshott and Besseling's tenures had always shown Port Macquarie as a comfortably safe National seat.

Proving this, Williams easily retained Port Macquarie in 2015. Despite suffering a 9.8 percent swing against Labor, she still sits on a majority of 19 percent, making Port Macquarie the sixth-safest National seat and the 17th-safest Coalition seat.

In 2020 Williams defected to the Liberals whilst still member for Port Macquarie making it the first time the seat has been held by a Liberal.

It marks the second time, after Oakeshott, that a member for Port Macquarie has quit the Nationals whilst holding the seat. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

Prior to Williams' defection to the Liberals, the Liberal Party had never contested Port Macquarie. ^{[5] [6] [7] [8]}

As part of the redistribution of electoral districts for the 2023 state election, a proposal was received to move Lord Howe Island back into the electorate of Sydney. ^[9] However, the NSW Electoral Commission eventually decided to retain the island within the electorate of Port Macquarie, where it has been included since 1991. ^[10]

Members for Port Macquarie

Member		Party	Term
	Bruce Jeffery   [11]	National	1988–1991
	Wendy Machin   [12]	National	1991–1996
	Rob Oakeshott   [13]	National	1996–2002
		Independent	2002–2008
	Peter Besseling   [14]	Independent	2008–2011
	Leslie Williams   [15]	National	2011–2020
		Liberal	2020–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Port Macquarie

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2023 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § Port Macquarie.[ edit ]

2023 New South Wales state election: Port Macquarie ^{[16] [17] [18] [19]}

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Leslie Williams	21,044	39.5	+39.5
	National	Peta Pinson	13,675	25.6	−37.9
	Labor	Keith McMullen	10,265	19.2	−4.1
	Greens	Stuart Watson	3,473	6.5	−1.4
	Legalise Cannabis	Vivian McMahon	2,212	4.1	+4.1
	Informed Medical Options	Silvia Mogorovich	1,229	2.3	+2.3
	Sustainable Australia	Edward Coleman	809	1.5	−3.7
	Liberal Democrats	Benjamin Read	623	1.2	+1.2
Total formal votes			53,330	97.2	+0.7
Informal votes			1,559	2.8	−0.7
Turnout			54,889	89.9	+0.3
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Liberal	Leslie Williams	28,044	66.7	+66.7
	Labor	Keith McMullen	14,003	33.3	+3.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Liberal	Leslie Williams	25,372	60.8	+60.8
	National	Peta Pinson	16,379	39.2	−30.9
	Member changed to Liberal from National

References

1. "Port Macquarie". New South Wales Electoral Commission . Retrieved 23 November 2019.
2. "Nationals to contest Port Macquarie in 2023 - NSW Nationals".
3. "Nationals will field a candidate in Port Macquarie against sitting Liberal MP". TheGuardian.com . 15 December 2020.
4. "Dailytelegraph.com.au | Subscribe to The Daily Telegraph for exclusive stories".
5. "NSW Elections - Contests for Port Macquarie".
6. "Port Macquarie - NSW Votes 2011 - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
7. "Port Macquarie - NSW Election 2015 - New South Wales Votes - NSW Election 2015 (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
8. "Port Macquarie - NSW Electorate, Candidates, Results". Australian Broadcasting Corporation .
9. Jambor, Claudia (26 November 2020). "Lord Howe Island's proposed move to Sydney electorate resisted by Port Macquarie MP". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ABC Coffs Coast. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
10. "Electoral Districts Redistribution Panel determination of New South Wales electoral districts" (PDF). New South Wales Electoral Commission. 20 August 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
11. "Mr Bruce Leslie Jeffery (1944- )". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 13 May 2019.
12. "Ms Wendy Susan Machin (1958- )". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 22 August 2019.
13. "Mr Robert James Murray Oakeshott (1969- )". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 1 May 2019.
14. "Mr Peter Edward Besseling". Former members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 3 May 2019.
15. "The Hon. Leslie Gladys Willimas MP". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales . Retrieved 8 May 2019.
16. LA First Preference: Port Macquarie, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
17. LA Two Candidate Preferred: Port Macquarie, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
18. Two Candidate Preferred (TCP) Analytical Tool: Port Macquarie, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
19. Green, Antony. "2020/21 NSW Redistribution: Analysis of Draft Electoral Boundaries" (PDF). Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 27 April 2023.