The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division of Victoria. It is currently represented by Peter Khalil of the Australian Labor Party.
The electorate encompasses many of the suburbs in the City of Moreland in Melbourne's north, including Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Fawkner, Glenroy and Essendon Airport. It was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame.
Wills has been in Labor hands for its entire existence except between the 1992 by-election and 1996, when it was held by independent Phil Cleary. Its highest-profile member was former Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the Crown from standing for election). No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.
Despite the history of Wills as a traditional Labor stronghold, demographic changes and the rise of The Greens have seen Wills, along with the neighbouring seat of Batman, become Labor-Green marginal seats in recent years. In 2016, Labor's margin versus Greens candidate and City of Moreland Mayor Samantha Ratnam dropped below 5 percent after a swing of more than 10 percent to Ratnam, despite the traditional 2PP margin (versus The Liberals) of over 20 percent making it one of the safest Labor seats in the country when considered against the Coalition.
Video Division of Wills
Members
Maps Division of Wills
Election results
References
External links
- Division of Wills - Australian Electoral Commission
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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