Australian federal electoral division
Australian electorate
The
Division of Indi
(
"IN-dye") is an
Australian electoral division
in the
state
of
Victoria
. The division is located in the north-east of the state, adjoining the border with
New South Wales
. The largest settlements in the division are the regional cities of
Wodonga
,
Wangaratta
, and
Benalla
. Other towns in the electorate include
Rutherglen
,
Mansfield
,
Beechworth
,
Myrtleford
,
Bright
,
Alexandra
,
Tallangatta
,
Corryong
and a number of other small villages (including the ski resort of
Falls Creek
). While Indi is one of the largest electorates in Victoria, much of it is located within the largely uninhabited
Australian Alps
. While Wodonga serves as a regional hub for much of the more heavily populated northern part of the electorate, the southern part is closer to
Melbourne
than Wodonga.
The current member for Indi, since the
2019 federal election
, is
independent
Helen Haines
.
Geography
[
edit
]
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.
[1]
History
[
edit
]
The
Murray River
, the
Aboriginal
name of which is the division's namesake
Indi has existed continuously since
Federation
. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the
original 65 divisions
to be contested at the
first federal election
. The most nationally prominent person to represent Indi to date was the first, Sir
Isaac Isaacs
, who rose to become
Attorney-General of Australia
,
Chief Justice
of the
High Court of Australia
, and the first Australian-born
Governor-General of Australia
. Another member for Indi,
John "Black Jack" McEwen
, was a long-serving Minister and was briefly
Prime Minister of Australia
after the death of
Harold Holt
in 1967, but he was member for
Murray
by then. Indi has been held by a member of a conservative party (either the
Liberal Party
and its predecessors or the
National Party
) or a conservative independent for all but four terms since Federation, and without interruption since 1931.
[
citation needed
]
Labor
last won the seat in 1928 when the Country incumbent forgot to renominate, and retained it in 1929.
[2]
Since 2004, the Liberal primary vote has been in decline, falling from 63% in 2004,
[3]
to 54% in 2007,
[4]
53% in 2010,
[5]
44% in 2013 and 27% in 2016. In 2019, the Liberal primary vote rose slightly to 35% before falling again, in 2022, to 31%.
At the
2013 election
, independent
Cathy McGowan
unseated Liberal Party incumbent
Sophie Mirabella
, the only incumbent Liberal MP to lose their seat at the 2013 election. This was considered a major upset; Mirabella had gone into the election sitting on a margin of 59 percent, on the stronger side of fairly safe. Indeed, in a "traditional" two-party matchup, Mirabella would have retained the seat with a small swing in her favour against Labor.
McGowan retained Indi against Mirabella at the
2016 election
with an increased 54.8% (+4.6)
two-candidate-preferred vote
. The Liberal "traditional"
two-party-preferred vote
was reduced to 54.4% (?4.7) against Labor's 45.6% (+4.7), a
marginal two-party result not seen
since the
1929 election
.
McGowan retired in 2019 and was succeeded by fellow independent Haines, who suffered a swing of four percent against the Liberals from McGowan's 2016 vote and was elected on Labor preferences.
[6]
[7]
Members
[
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]
Election results
[
edit
]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
36°38′24″S
146°37′59″E
/
36.640°S 146.633°E
/
-36.640; 146.633