Pittwater
New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Interactive map of district boundaries from the 2023 state election
StateNew South Wales
Dates current1973–present
MPRory Amon
PartyLiberal Party
NamesakePittwater
Electors56,138 (2019)
Area190.16 km2 (73.4 sq mi)
DemographicOuter-metropolitan
Electorates around Pittwater:
Hornsby Gosford Pacific Ocean
Hornsby Pittwater Pacific Ocean
Davidson Wakehurst Pacific Ocean

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 formerly Pittwater Council.

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 for Pittwater is Rory Amon of the Liberal Party. He was first elected at the 2023 state election, succeeding the retiring member, Rob Stokes.

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 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, and now sits on a majority of 20.8 percent, the third-safest in the state for a Coalition-held metropolitan seat.

While Labor usually runs dead 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 2007–2023
  Rory Amon Liberal 2023–present

Election results

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2023 New South Wales state election (Legislative Assembly) § Pittwater.[edit]
2023 New South Wales state election: Pittwater[8][9][10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Rory Amon 22,137 44.71 −12.64
Independent Jacqui Scruby 17,754 35.86 +35.86
Labor Jeffrey Quinn 5,039 10.18 −2.38
Greens Hilary Green 3,386 6.84 −8.47
Sustainable Australia Craig Law 1,195 2.41 −1.32
Total formal votes 49,511 97.75 +0.42
Informal votes 1,139 2.25 −0.42
Turnout 50,650 90.16 +0.27
Notional two-party-preferred count
Liberal Rory Amon 26,796 63.25 −9.11
Labor Jeffrey Quinn 15,567 36.75 +9.11
Two-candidate-preferred result
Liberal Rory Amon 23,365 50.66 −20.18
Independent Jacqui Scruby 22,759 49.34 +49.34
Liberal hold  

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. ↑ LA First Preference: Pittwater, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  9. ↑ LA Two Candidate Preferred: Pittwater, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  10. ↑ Two Candidate Preferred (TCP) Analytical Tool: Pittwater, NSW State Election Results 2023, NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 27 April 2023.
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