The Division of Barton is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. The division was created in 1922 and is named for Sir Edmund Barton

Edmund Barton

Sir Edmund Barton, GCMG, KC , Australian politician and judge, was the first Prime Minister of Australia and a founding justice of the High Court of Australia....

, the first Prime Minister of Australia

Prime Minister of Australia

The Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia is the highest minister of the Crown, leader of the Cabinet and Head of Her Majesty's Australian Government, holding office on commission from the Governor-General of Australia. The office of Prime Minister is, in practice, the most powerful...

. It has always been based in the inner southern suburbs of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, and currently includes the suburbs of Arncliffe

Arncliffe, New South Wales

Arncliffe is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Arncliffe is located 11 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Rockdale. Arncliffe is part of the St George area.Arncliffe is located south of the...

, Banksia

Banksia, New South Wales

Banksia is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Banksia is located 12 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George area....

, Bardwell Valley

Bardwell Valley, New South Wales

Bardwell Valley is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bardwell Valley is located approximately 12 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George area.Bardwell Valley...

, Beverley Park

Beverley Park, New South Wales

Beverley Park is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Beverley Park is located 15 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the Municipality of Kogarah and is part of the St George area....

, Bexley

Bexley, New South Wales

Bexley is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bexley is located 14 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George area.-History:...

, Bexley North

Bexley North, New South Wales

Bexley North is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Bexley North is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale.-History:James Chandler named...

, Brighton-Le-Sands

Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales

Brighton-Le-Sands , is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Brighton-Le-Sands is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, on the western shore of Botany Bay...

, Carss Park

Carss Park, New South Wales

Carss Park is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Carss Park is located 17 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the Municipality of Kogarah. Carrs Park is part of the St George area.-Location:Carss Park is a...

, Dolls Point

Dolls Point, New South Wales

Dolls Point is a small suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Dolls Point is located 17km south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Dolls Point is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale.Dolls Point takes its name...

, Kogarah

Kogarah, New South Wales

Kogarah is a suburb of southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah is located 14 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is considered to be the centre of the St George area...

, Kogarah Bay

Kogarah Bay, New South Wales

Kogarah Bay is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kogarah Bay is located 16 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Kogarah Bay is in the local government area of the Municipality of Kogarah.Kogarah Bay...

, Kyeemagh

Kyeemagh, New South Wales

Kyeemagh is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kyeemagh is located 12 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, on the western shore of Botany Bay. Kyeemagh is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George...

, Monterey

Monterey, New South Wales

Monterey is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Monterey is located 15km south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Monterey is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale....

, Ramsgate

Ramsgate, New South Wales

Ramsgate is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ramsgate is located 16 km south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Ramsgate is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale...

, Ramsgate Beach

Ramsgate Beach, New South Wales

Ramsgate Beach is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Ramsgate Beach is located 16 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George area. The postcode is 2217. Ramsgate is a separate suburb, to the...

, Rockdale

Rockdale, New South Wales

Rockdale is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Rockdale is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area...

, Sandringham

Sandringham, New South Wales

Sandringham is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sandringham is located 18 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Sandringham is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale.Sandringham is a quiet...

, Sans Souci

Sans Souci, New South Wales

Sans Souci is a southern Sydney suburb in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Sans Souci is 17 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Rockdale and the Municipality of Kogarah. It is part of the St George area.Sans...

, Turrella

Turrella, New South Wales

Turrella is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Turrella is located 10 km south of the Sydney central business district on the southern bank of Wolli Creek. Turrella is in the local government area of the City of Rockdale and is part of the St George...

 and Wolli Creek

Wolli Creek, New South Wales

For the urban waterway see Wolli CreekWolli Creek is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It sits beside the Wolli Creek and Cooks River waterways...

 and parts of Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills, New South Wales

Beverly Hills is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Beverly Hills is located 17 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Beverly Hills lies across two local government areas, the City of Hurstville and the...

, Carlton

Carlton, New South Wales

Carlton is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Carlton is located 15 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the St George area. Carlton lies across the boundary of two local government areas, the Municipality of Kogarah and the...

, Earlwood

Earlwood, New South Wales

Earlwood is a suburb in the inner-west of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Earlwood is located 12 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Canterbury...

 and Kingsgrove

Kingsgrove, New South Wales

Kingsgrove is a suburb in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Kingsgrove is located 13 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Rockdale, the City of Hurstville and the City of Canterbury...

. For most of its history Barton has been a marginal seat, changing hands regularly, but in recent years it has grown safer for the Australian Labor Party

Australian Labor Party

The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...

.

Barton's most prominent member has been Dr H.V. Evatt

H. V. Evatt

Herbert Vere Evatt, QC KStJ , was an Australian jurist, politician and writer. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948–49 and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

, who was Leader of the Labor Party 1951-60. Evatt nearly lost the seat in 1951 and 1955, and in 1958 he transferred to the safe seat of Hunter

Division of Hunter

The Division of Hunter is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in northern rural New South Wales, and encompasses much of the Hunter Valley region, including the towns of Singleton, Maitland, Muswellbrook, Cessnock and Denman...

.

The Division of Barton is linked to one of the more unusual episodes in Australian politics. The first member for Barton, Labor's Frederick McDonald

Frederick McDonald

Frederick Albert McDonald was an Australian politician and possible murder victim. Educated at public schools and at the University of Sydney, McDonald became a teacher and rose to become President of the Teachers Federation of New South Wales...

, disappeared after his 1925 defeat by Nationalist

Nationalist Party of Australia

The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...

 Thomas Ley, and it is now believed that Ley had him murdered. Ley was later found to be insane and died in Broadmoor Asylum

Broadmoor Hospital

Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...

 in Britain. The current member for Barton is the Attorney-General, Robert McClelland

Robert McClelland (Australian politician)

Robert Bruce McClelland is the Attorney-General of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of theAustralian House of Representatives since March 1996, representing the Division of Barton, New South Wales...

.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Frederick McDonald Frederick McDonald Frederick Albert McDonald was an Australian politician and possible murder victim. Educated at public schools and at the University of Sydney, McDonald became a teacher and rose to become President of the Teachers Federation of New South Wales...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1922 Australian federal election, 1922 Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1922. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The incumbent Nationalist Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Billy Hughes lost its majority... –1925
	Thomas Ley	Nationalist Nationalist Party of Australia The Nationalist Party of Australia was an Australian political party. It was formed on 17 February 1917 from a merger between the conservative Commonwealth Liberal Party and the National Labor Party, the name given to the pro-conscription defectors from the Australian Labor Party led by Prime...	1925 Australian federal election, 1925 Federal elections were held in Australia on 14 November 1925. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 22 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1928
	James Tully James Tully (Australian politician) James Thomas Tully was an Australian politician. Born in Grafton, New South Wales, he was educated at state schools before becoming a farmer and teacher in Tullamore. In 1919, he unsuccessfully contested the federal seat of New England for the Australian Labor Party. He moved to Sydney in 1922,...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1928 Australian federal election, 1928 Federal elections were held in Australia on 17 November 1928. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1931
	Albert Lane Albert Lane (Australian politician) Albert Lane was an Australian politician. He was born in Windsor, New South Wales, and studied at public schools. He became an accountant and business manager. In 1917 he contested the federal election as the unsuccessful Nationalist candidate for the safe Labor seat of Dalley...	United Australia United Australia Party The United Australia Party was an Australian political party that was founded in 1931 and dissolved in 1945. It was the political successor to the Nationalist Party of Australia and predecessor to the Liberal Party of Australia...	1931 Australian federal election, 1931 Federal elections were held in Australia on 19 December 1931. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 18 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1940
	H. V. Evatt H. V. Evatt Herbert Vere Evatt, QC KStJ , was an Australian jurist, politician and writer. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1948–49 and helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1940 Australian federal election, 1940 Federal elections were held in Australia on 21 September 1940. All 74 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1958
	Leonard Reynolds Leonard Reynolds Leonard James Reynolds was an Australian politician. Born in Harden, New South Wales, he was educated at state schools before attending the University of Sydney. He undertook military service from 1943 to 1946 and was subsequently a teacher and education lecturer...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1958 Australian federal election, 1958 Federal elections were held in Australia on 22 November 1958. All 122 seats in the House of Representatives, and 32 of the 60 seats in the Senate were up for election... –1966
	William Arthur William Arthur (Australian politician) Sir William Tevlin Arthur was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he attended state schools and was on military service from 1941 to 1946. Subsequently he was a journalist, scriptwriter and research officer. He first contested the Australian House of Representatives seat of Barton in 1954,...	Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1966 Australian federal election, 1966 Federal elections were held in Australia on 26 November 1966. All 124 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt with coalition partner the Country Party led by John McEwen defeated the... –1969
	Leonard Reynolds Leonard Reynolds Leonard James Reynolds was an Australian politician. Born in Harden, New South Wales, he was educated at state schools before attending the University of Sydney. He undertook military service from 1943 to 1946 and was subsequently a teacher and education lecturer...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1969 Australian federal election, 1969 Federal elections were held in Australia on 25 October 1969. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives were up for election. The incumbent Liberal Party of Australia led by Prime Minister of Australia John Gorton with coalition partner the Country Party led by John McEwen defeated the Australian... –1975
	James Bradfield James Bradfield James Mark Bradfield was an Australian politician. Born in Sydney, he was a company manager and underwent military service in 1951. In 1975, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Barton, and held the seat throughout the length of the Fraser government...	Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an Australian political party.Founded a year after the 1943 federal election to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party typically competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office...	1975 Australian federal election, 1975 Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses.... –1983
	Gary Punch Gary Punch Gary Francis Punch is a former Australian politician and government minister.Punch was born in Arncliffe, New South Wales and educated at Hurstville Boys High School and subsequently obtained a commerce degree. He was an industrial relations and personnel manager before entering parliament...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1983 Australian federal election, 1983 Federal elections were held in Australia on 5 March 1983. All 125 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate, were up for election, following a double dissolution... –1996
	Robert McClelland Robert McClelland (Australian politician) Robert Bruce McClelland is the Attorney-General of Australia. He has been an Australian Labor Party member of theAustralian House of Representatives since March 1996, representing the Division of Barton, New South Wales...	Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...	1996–present

Election results