Division of Swan

{{about|the Australian constituency|other kinds of divisions|Swan (disambiguation)}}

{{Infobox Australian electorate

| federal = yes

| name = Swan

| image = {{switcher

|{{maplink|frame=yes|plain=yes|from=Australian Federal Electorates/Western Australia (2022)/Swan.map|frame-height=300|frame-width=400|overlay-horizontal-alignment=right|overlay-vertical-alignment=bottom|overlay=x100px

}}

|From the 2022 federal election to 2025

|{{maplink|frame=yes|plain=yes|from=Australian Federal Electorates/Western Australia (2025)/Swan.map|frame-height=300|frame-width=400|overlay-horizontal-alignment=right|overlay-vertical-alignment=bottom|overlay=x100px

}}

|From the 2025 federal election

|default=2

}}

| caption = Interactive map of electorate boundaries

| created = 1901

| mp = Zaneta Mascarenhas

| mp-party = Labor

| namesake = Swan River

| electors = 121335

| electors_year = 2022

| area = 134

| class = Inner metropolitan

}}

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

Swan is a marginal electorate that has swung between both major political parties in the past two decades. It extends across the Swan River from central Perth, and covers most of the area between the Swan and Canning Rivers.{{Cite web |title=Swan (Key Seat) - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results |url=https://abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/guide/swan |access-date=2022-06-16 |website=abc.net.au |language=en-AU}}

The seat includes a mix of incomes and housing types, from low-price flats to affluent suburbs with Swan River views. The electorate includes the campus of Curtin University, the Welshpool and Kewdale industrial areas, and Perth Airport. Swan covers 151 sq. kilometres.

The current MP is Zaneta Mascarenhas, a member of the Australian Labor Party. She was elected in the 2022 election.

History

File:Swan River,Perth,Western Australia.jpg, the division's namesake]]

The division was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election in 1901. It was one of five electorates created by the Federal House of Representatives Western Australian Electorates Act 1900, an act of the parliament of Western Australia.{{cite news|url=https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/law_a142972.html|title=Federal House of Representatives Western Australian Electorates Act 1900|work=Western Australian Legislation|publisher=Government of Western Australia|access-date=24 July 2024}} The original bill introduced by Premier John Forrest provided for the seat to be named "Occidental" rather than Swan.{{cite news|url=https://john.curtin.edu.au/fremantle/boundaries.html|title=Changing boundaries|work=The Federal Electorate of Fremantle: A History Since 1901|first=David|last=Black|year=2010|publisher=John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library|access-date=24 July 2024}}

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.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

For several decades, Swan 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. 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. 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.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

At the 2007 election, Liberal candidate Steve Irons won the seat with a swing of 0.19 percent.{{Cite web|url=https://results.aec.gov.au/13745/website/HouseDivisionFirstPrefs-13745-247.htm|title=House of Representatives Division First Preferences|first=Australian Electoral|last=Commission|website=results.aec.gov.au}} 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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.communitynews.com.au/southern-gazette/news/steve-irons-back-as-swan-pm-as-hannah-beazley-offically-concedes-she-cant-win|title=Federal election 2019 Swan result|date=2019-05-19|website=Community News Group|language=en|access-date=2019-06-23}} Hannah Beazley contested the seat for Labor but ultimately conceded defeat. After Steve Iron's retirement at the 2022 Australian federal election, the seat was contested by Kristy McSweeney from the Liberal Party. She was defeated by Zaneta Mascarenhas from the Labor Party.{{cite web |last1=Green |first1=Antony |title=Swan (Key Seat) - Federal Election 2022 |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/guide/swan |website=ABC News |access-date=21 May 2022}}

Geography

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.{{cite web |last1=Muller |first1=Damon |title=The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide |url=https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1718/Quick_Guides/FederalRedistributions |website=Parliament of Australia |access-date=19 April 2022 |date=14 November 2017}}

In August 2021, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced that Swan would lose the suburb of Wilson to the seat of Tangney and gain the suburbs of Maida Vale and Wattle Grove and the remainder of Forrestfield and High Wycombe from the seat of Hasluck. These boundary changes took place as of the 2022 election.{{Cite web | url=https://www.aec.gov.au/Electorates/Redistributions/2021/wa/files/redistribution-of-western-australia-into-electoral-divisions-august-2021.pdf | title=Redistribution of Western Australia into electoral divisions | date=August 2021 | website=www.aec.gov.au}}

Swan is bordered by the Swan River in the north and west, the Canning River and the City of Canning in the south, and Roe Highway, Great Eastern Highway and Perth Airport in the east. Suburbs include:{{cite web|title=Profile of the electoral division of Swan (WA)|url=http://www.aec.gov.au/profiles/wa/swan.htm|website=Australian Electoral Commission|access-date=24 April 2016}}

= [[City of Belmont]] =

= [[City of Canning]] =

= [[City of Kalamunda]] =

= [[City of South Perth]] =

= [[City of Swan]] =

South Guildford (part)

= [[Town of Victoria Park]] =

Members

class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
! Image ! Member ! Party ! Term ! Notes
{{Australian party style\|Protectionist}}\| \| rowspan=3 \| 100px \| rowspan=3 \| Sir John Forrest {{small\|(1847–1918)}} \| Protectionist \| nowrap \| 29 March 1901 – 26 May 1909 \| rowspan=3 \| Previously held the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Bunbury. Served as minister under Barton, Deakin, Cook and Hughes. Died in office
{{Australian party style\|Commonwealth Liberal}}\| \| nowrap \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 26 May 1909 – 17 February 1917
{{Australian party style\|Nationalist}}\| \| nowrap \| Nationalist \| nowrap \| 17 February 1917 – 2 September 1918
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Edwin Corboy {{small\|(1896–1950)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 26 October 1918 – 13 December 1919 \| Lost seat. Later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Yilgarn in 1921
{{Australian party style\|Country}}\| \| rowspan=2 \| 100px \| rowspan=2 \| John Prowse {{small\|(1871–1944)}} \| Farmers and Settlers' Association \| nowrap \| 13 December 1919 – 24 February 1920 \| rowspan=2 \| Transferred to the Division of Forrest
{{Australian party style\|Country}}\| \| rowspan="3" \| Country \| nowrap \| 24 February 1920 – 16 December 1922
{{Australian party style\|Country}}\| \| 100px \| Henry Gregory {{small\|(1860–1940)}} \| nowrap \| 16 December 1922 – 15 November 1940 \| Previously held the Division of Dampier. Died in office
{{Australian party style\|Country}}\| \| 100px \| Thomas Marwick {{small\|(1895–1960)}} \| nowrap \| 21 December 1940 – 21 August 1943 \| Previously a member of the Senate. Lost seat
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Don Mountjoy {{small\|(1906–1988)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 21 August 1943 – 28 September 1946 \| Lost seat
{{Australian party style\|Country}}\| \| 100px \| Len Hamilton {{small\|(1899–1987)}} \| Country \| nowrap \| 28 September 1946 – 10 December 1949 \| Transferred to the Division of Canning
{{Australian party style\|Liberal}}\| \| 100px \| Bill Grayden {{small\|(1920–)}} \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 10 December 1949 – 29 May 1954 \| Previously held the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Middle Swan. Lost seat. Later elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of South Perth in 1956. Currently the oldest living former member of the House of Representatives
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Harry Webb {{small\|(1908–2000)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 29 May 1954 – 10 December 1955 \| Transferred to the Division of Stirling
{{Australian party style\|Liberal}}\| \| 100px \| Richard Cleaver {{small\|(1917–2006)}} \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 10 December 1955 – 25 October 1969 \| Lost seat
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Adrian Bennett {{small\|(1933–2006)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 25 October 1969 – 13 December 1975 \| Lost seat
{{Australian party style\|Liberal}}\| \| 100px \| John Martyr {{small\|(1932–2021)}} \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 13 December 1975 – 18 October 1980 \| Lost seat. Later appointed to the Senate in 1981
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Kim Beazley {{small\|(1948–)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 18 October 1980 – 2 March 1996 \| Served as minister under Hawke and Keating. Served as Deputy Prime Minister under Keating. Transferred to the Division of Brand
{{Australian party style\|Liberal}}\| \| 100px \| Don Randall {{small\|(1953–2015)}} \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 2 March 1996 – 3 October 1998 \| Lost seat. Later elected to the Division of Canning in 2001
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Kim Wilkie {{small\|(1959–)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 3 October 1998 – 24 November 2007 \| Lost seat
{{Australian party style\|Liberal}}\| \| 100px \| Steve Irons {{small\|(1958–)}} \| Liberal \| nowrap \| 24 November 2007 – 11 April 2022 \| Retired
{{Australian party style\|Labor}}\| \| 100px \| Zaneta Mascarenhas {{small\|(1980–)}} \| Labor \| nowrap \| 21 May 2022 – present \| Incumbent

class=wikitable style="text-align:center"

! Image

! Member

! Party

! Term

! Notes

{{Australian party style|Protectionist}}|

| rowspan=3 | 100px

| rowspan=3 | Sir John Forrest
{{small|(1847–1918)}}

| Protectionist

| nowrap | 29 March 1901 –
26 May 1909

| rowspan=3 | Previously held the Western Australian Legislative Assembly seat of Bunbury. Served as minister under Barton, Deakin, Cook and Hughes. Died in office

{{Australian party style|Commonwealth Liberal}}|

| nowrap | Liberal

| nowrap | 26 May 1909 –
17 February 1917

{{Australian party style|Nationalist}}|

| nowrap | Nationalist

| nowrap | 17 February 1917 –
2 September 1918

{{Australian party style|Labor}}|