Divisions of the Australian House of Representatives.html

The Australian House of Representatives is elected from 150 single-member districts called Divisions. They are also commonly known as electorates or seats. The British term "constituencies" is rarely used.

1 Apportionment
2 Naming
3 List of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions, 2007-2010
4 Abolished Divisions
5 See also
6 External links
7 Notes

Apportionment

Divisions are apportioned among the states and territories of Australia in accordance with section 24 of the Australian Constitution and the Electoral Act^[1] Generally, apportionment among the states and territories is based on population, with the following provisos:

Each original state must have at least 5 Members of Parliament (a provision that gives Tasmania more representation than its population would suggest)
The Northern Territory is allocated slightly more representation under recent legislative amendments^{citation needed}
The Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives should be approximately twice as large as the Senate

Within each state and territory, boundaries must be redrawn in a process known as redistribution at least once every 7 years, or when the state's entitlement to the number of MPs change. Boundaries are drawn by Redistribution Committee, and apportionment within a state is on the basis of the number of enrolled voters rather than total residents.

Within a state or territory, the number of enrolled voters in each Division can not vary by more than 10% from the average across the state, nor can the number of voters vary by more than 3.5% from the average projected enrolment three-and-a-half years into the future.

Naming

The Divisions of the House of Representatives are unusual in that many of them are not named after geographical features, as is the case in most other legislatures around the world. Most Divisions are named in honour of prominent historical people, such as former politicians (often Prime Ministers), explorers, artists and engineers.

In some cases where a Division is named after a geographical locality, the connection to that locality is sometimes tenuous. For instance, the Division of Werriwa, created in 1901, was named after the Aboriginal word for Lake George in the Canberra region. However, Werriwa has not contained Lake George for many decades, and has steadily moved some 200km north to the south-western suburbs of Sydney over the past century.

The redistribution, creation and abolition of Divisions is the responsibility of the Australian Electoral Commission. Some of the criteria the AEC use when naming new Divisions are listed below:^[2]

Divisions should be named after deceased Australians who have rendered outstanding service to their country, with consideration given to former Prime Ministers
The original names of Divisions proclaimed at Federation in 1901 should be retained
Geographical place names should be avoided
Aboriginal names should be used where appropriate
Names of state electoral districts should not be duplicated

List of Commonwealth Electoral Divisions, 2007-2010

The maps below show the Division boundaries as they existed at the 24 November 2007 House of Representatives election. The maps show each Division as being held by a particular party.

New South Wales

There are 49 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: New South Wales

Electoral divisions: Sydney area

Victoria

There are 37 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: Victoria

Electoral divisions: Melbourne area

Queensland

There are 29 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: Queensland

Electoral divisions: Brisbane area

Western Australia

There are 15 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: Western Australia

South Australia

There are 11 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: South Australia

Tasmania

There are 5 Divisions:

Electoral divisions: Tasmania

The Territories

Electoral divisions: Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

There are 2 Divisions:

Canberra
Fraser (also covers Jervis Bay Territory)

Northern Territory