Electoral district of Marrickville
From Freepedia
Marrickville is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. It is a 13.47 km² urban electorate in Sydney's inner west, centred on the suburb of Marrickville from which it takes its name. It also includes the suburbs of Camperdown, Enmore, Lewisham, Newtown, Petersham, Stanmore and parts of Dulwich Hill and Erskineville as well as the University of Sydney. There were 46,023 electors enrolled in the district for the 2005 by-election.
Created in 1894, Marrickville has traditionally been an Australian Labor Party (ALP) stronghold, but has become less so as the Australian Greens gain more support in the area. The Liberal Party have not even featured in the final two candidate count since 1991, beaten in 1995 by the short lived single issue party No Aircraft Noise and since then by the Greens.
The seat has been held by the ALP since 1910. Its longest serving member, Carlo Camillo Lazzarini was elected in 1917 and served until his death in 1952, although for 1920-27, the seat did not exist and he was member for the multi-member district of Western Suburbs. He was the first member of the NSW parliament with an Italian name. The seat was then held for twenty years by Norm Ryan, who for part of that time was Minister for Public Works and oversaw the building of the Sydney Opera House. After being elected 7 times, he stood aside for fellow ALP member, Tom Cahill (the son of former premier Joseph Cahill), who held the seat until his death in 1983. The resulting by-election was won by Andrew Refshauge, who was the deputy premier from April 4, 1995 until his resignation on August 10, 2005. At the most recent general election, in 2003, Refshauge won with a 10.7% two party preferred majority over Greens candidate Colin Hesse.
Refshauge's sudden retirement in 2005 sparked another by-election on September 17, held simultaneously with by-elections in Macquarie Fields and Maroubra. While the Liberal Party did not field a candidate, the ALP faced a strong challenger in the Deputy Mayor of Marrickville, Sam Byrne, running as an Australian Greens candidate. The ALP subsequently drafted Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt, who was then a member of the Legislative Council, as their candidate, as she was seen to be the best chance of holding the seat. Despite Tebbutt's profile, she faced a significant challenge from Byrne, but ultimately won out - although the Green vote was the highest in New South Wales history.
Members
- Carlo Camillo Lazzarini (Australian Labor Party) (1917-1953)
- Norm Ryan (Australian Labor Party) (1953-1973)
- Tom Cahill (Australian Labor Party) (1973-1983)
- Andrew Refshauge (Australian Labor Party) (1983-2005)
- Carmel Tebbutt (Australian Labor Party) (2005-present)
