The Division of Charlton was an Australian electoral division in the

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. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Matthew Charlton, who was Leader of the

Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party (ALP), also known as the Labor Party or simply Labor, is the major Centre-left politics, centre-left List of political parties in Australia, political party in Australia and one of two Major party, major parties in Po ...

1922–28. The division was located in the

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, ...

region of New South Wales, including the coal-mining towns of

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and

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as well as

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, Morisset, Cooranbong, Brightwaters, Windermere Park, Sunshine, Glendale and Warners Bay. The division was renamed Division of Hunter in the 2016 federal election, while the previous Division of Hunter was abolished in the same election. The last Member for Charlton, from the 2013 federal election, was

Pat Conroy Donald Patrick Conroy (October 26, 1945 – March 4, 2016) was an American author who wrote several acclaimed novels and memoirs; his books ''The Water Is Wide (book), The Water is Wide'', ''The Lords of Discipline'', ''The Prince of Tides (no ...

, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

History

Charlton was first created in 1984. Much of its territory came from Hunter, which Matthew Charlton held from 1910 to 1928. From its inception, it had been a safe seat for Labor. The Hunter Region is one of the few areas outside capital cities where Labor has consistently done well. The most prominent members were Bob Brown, a minister in the Hawke and Keating governments, and Greg Combet, a former secretary of the

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from 2000 to 2007, and a minister in the Gillard and Rudd governments. During the 2013 federal election campaign, the

Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia (LP) is the prominent centre-right political party in Australia. It is considered one of the two major parties in Australian politics, the other being the Australian Labor Party (ALP). The Liberal Party was fo ...

endorsed Kevin Baker as their candidate for the division. However, Baker was forced to end his campaign on 21 August 2013 due to controversy over inappropriate content on a car enthusiasts' website that he hosted. The

Australian Electoral Commission The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is the independent statutory agency of the Australian Government responsible for the management and oversight of Australian federal elections, plebiscites, referendums and some trade union A ...

had closed candidate nominations by the time Baker abandoned his campaign. The Liberals did not field a replacement candidate in the election. However, Baker was still listed on ballot papers as the Liberal candidate, as they had already been printed at the time of Baker's resignation from the campaign; in excess of electors gave him their first preference vote. Under the original proposed redistribution for the 2016 federal election, the Division of Hunter was to be abolished. Since Hunter is an original Federation electorate, the

's guidelines for redistributions required it to make every effort to preserve the Hunter name. To that end, the Commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter. Effectively, this meant that Charlton was abolished, and Hunter pushed slightly eastward to absorb much of Charlton's former territory. Although most voters of the new Hunter division came from the former Charlton division, Conroy stood down in favour of the member for the old Hunter division, Joel Fitzgibbon. Conroy contested and won the neighbouring seat of Shortland.

Members

Election results

References

External links

Division of Charlton - Australian Electoral Commission
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlton, Division of Former electoral divisions of Australia Constituencies established in 1984 Constituencies disestablished in 2016 1984 establishments in Australia 2016 disestablishments in Australia