Electoral district of Pittwater

Pittwater is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of New South Wales. Located in Sydney's north-east, it is 175.32 km² in size, and comprises a part of the local government area of Northern Beaches Council—mostly the portion that was once Pittwater Council. There are approximately 43,000 registered voters.

Pittwater New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Location within Sydney
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1973–present
MP	Rob Stokes
Party	Liberal Party
Electors	56,138 (2019)
Area	190.16 km^2 (73.4 sq mi)
Electorates around Pittwater: Hornsby Gosford Terrigal Hornsby Pittwater Pacific Ocean Ku-ring-gai Davidson Wakehurst

It is named after Pittwater, a body of water the district roughly surrounds.

It includes the suburbs or localities of Avalon, Bayview, Bilgola, Church Point, Cottage Point, Duffys Forest, Elanora Heights, Ingleside, Ku-ring-gai Chase, Mona Vale, Narrabeen, Newport, North Narrabeen, Palm Beach, Scotland Island, Terrey Hills, and Warriewood.

The current Member of Parliament for Pittwater is Rob Stokes of the Liberal Party. He was first elected at the 2007 state election, defeating Independent Alex McTaggart.

History

The electoral district of Pittwater was created in 1973. Located in the traditional Liberal stronghold of Sydney's Northern Beaches, for most of its existence it has been a comfortably safe Liberal seat. Its first member was Sir Robert William Askin, then Premier of New South Wales. It had been created out of a large chunk of Askin's old seat of Collaroy, and was thus a natural place for Askin to transfer when the seat was abolished.

The seat was notably held by New South Wales Opposition Leader John Brogden until his dramatic resignation in 2005. The Liberal stranglehold on the seat was lost in the resulting by-election when the Mayor of Pittwater Council, Alex McTaggart, standing as an Independent candidate, defeated the Liberal Paul Nicolau in a landslide.

The seat reverted to form at the 2007 general election, with new Liberal candidate Rob Stokes comfortably regaining the seat for his party with 61% of the two-party vote to McTaggart's 39%. Stokes actually won just over 50% of the primary vote, just a few thousand votes over the threshold to win the seat without the need for preferences. Stokes won every booth in the district with the exception of Scotland Island, whose few hundred offshore voters traditionally buck the trend. Stokes has held the seat without serious difficulty since then.

While Labor frequently performs poorly in northern Sydney, Pittwatter is especially unfriendly territory for Labor even by northern Sydney standards. Labor has only come reasonably close to winning the seat once, when it scored a 14-point swing in the "Wranslide" election of 1978. However, Labor has not won more than 20 percent of the primary vote since 1984, and not placed better than third place since 2007.

The seat is almost entirely within the equally conservative federal seat of Mackellar.

Members for Pittwater

Member		Party	Period
	Sir Robert Askin [1]	Liberal	1973–1975
	Bruce Webster [2]	Liberal	1975–1978
	Max Smith [3]	Liberal	1978–1984
		Independent	1984–1986
	Jim Longley [4]	Liberal	1986–1996
	John Brogden [5]	Liberal	1996–2005
	Alex McTaggart [6]	Independent	2005–2007
	Rob Stokes [7]	Liberal	2007–present

Election results

2019 New South Wales state election: Pittwater [8][9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rob Stokes	28,170	57.35	−10.41
	Greens	Miranda Korzy	7,518	15.31	−0.79
	Labor	Jared Turkington	6,168	12.56	−0.20
	Sustainable Australia	Suzanne Daly	1,832	3.73	+3.73
	Keep Sydney Open	Michael Newman	1,644	3.35	+3.35
	Animal Justice	Natalie Matkovic	1,417	2.88	+2.88
	Conservatives	Stacey Mitchell	1,283	2.61	+2.61
	Independent	Stewart Matthews	1,087	2.21	+2.21
Total formal votes			49,119	97.33	−0.24
Informal votes			1,346	2.67	+0.24
Turnout			50,465	89.89	−1.43
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Rob Stokes	30,070	72.36	−5.53
	Labor	Jared Turkington	11,486	27.64	+5.53
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Liberal	Rob Stokes	29,696	70.84	−4.81
	Greens	Miranda Korzy	12,225	29.16	+4.81
	Liberal hold		Swing	−4.81

References

1. "Sir Robert (Robin William) Askin (1907–1981)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
2. "Mr Bruce Laurence Webster (1927- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
3. "Mr Richard Max Smith". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
4. "Mr (Jim) James Alan Longley (1958- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
5. "Mr John Gilbert Brogden (1969-)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
6. "Mr (Alex) Alexander John McTaggart (1949- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
7. "The Hon. (Rob) Robert Gordon Stokes, MP". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
8. "Pittwater: First Preference Votes". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
9. "Pittwater: Distribution of Preferences". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.

External links

• "Pittwater". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 September 2011.