Division of Tangney

The Division of Tangney is an Australian electoral division in the state of Western Australia. The Division was named after Dame Dorothy Tangney, the first female member of the Australian Senate.

Tangney is an affluent electorate covering the southern shores of the Swan and Canning rivers, divided by the Kwinana Freeway.^[1] It extends from Bicton to Riverton and Ferndale and as far south as Murdoch, Leeming and Canning Vale.^[1] Tangney covers 102 square kilometres (39 sq mi).^[1]

From the 1980s to 2022 it was considered a safe Liberal seat and in 2022 was held by Ben Morton, a former state director of the Liberal Party. In the 2022 Australian federal election, Sam Lim, the Labor candidate garnered a 10.4 per cent swing against the sitting member to deliver Tangney to the ALP for the first time since 1983.^[2][3]

History

Tangney was established at the Western Australia redistribution of 19 April 1974 and was first contested at the 1974 election. Before the 1984 redistribution, the electorate included the traditional Labor areas of Spearwood and Gosnells, and was a bellwether seat for the party in government. After 1984, the seat received its present borders. For most of the next three decades, it was a safe Liberal seat.

It was first held by John Dawkins, later a Treasurer of Australia (as Member for Fremantle), and was held from 1993 until 2004 by Daryl Williams, former Attorney-General of Australia and Rhodes Scholar.^[4]

The seat briefly made national headlines in August 2006 when Matt Brown, once a chief-of-staff to former Defence Minister Robert Hill, defeated incumbent Dennis Jensen for preselection, despite support for the latter from John Howard. However, on 7 October 2006, the decision was overturned by the Liberals' Western Australian state council and Jensen was once again confirmed as the candidate for the 2007 election.^[5]

Jensen lost Liberal preselection in Tangney for the 2016 federal election. Announced on 3 April 2016, it was revealed he had written an unpublished book that included a sex scene, subsequently published as an e-book.^[6][7][8] Former party state director Ben Morton won preselection. On 2 July 2016 Ben Morton won the Tangney seat with 61.5% of the vote, losing 1.5% towards the Labor Party.

A redistribution ahead of the 2022 federal election slightly pared back the Liberal margin to 9.5 percent. At that election, Morton lost over 10.5 percent of his primary vote, and Labor candidate and former police officer Sam Lim defeated Morton on Green preferences. Lim picked up a swing of over 11 percent amid the Liberals' collapse in Western Australia. The loss of the seat has also been attributed to the notably large swings against the Liberals among Chinese Australian voters, which cost the Liberals many key seats;^[9] approximately one in ten of the electorate's voters possessed Chinese ancestry.^[10]

In the 2025 Federal Election, Sam Lim (Labor Member for Tangney) was up against Liberal candidate Howard Ong. On May 3rd 2025, Sam Lim was called the winner had a primary vote of 42.5% and had increased his primary vote since 2022 by 4.3%. Howard Ong had received 34.2% of the primary vote. The TTP (two party preferred) was 57.0% to Sam Lim and 43.0% to Howard Ong. After post-election analysis, Tangney has been labeled a fairly safe Labor seat.^[11]

Geography

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.^[12]

In August 2021, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) announced Tangney would gain the Canning suburb of Wilson from the seat of Swan and the Canning-Gosnells suburb of Canning Vale from the seat of Burt. These boundary changes took place at the 2022 election.^[13]

The seat presently contains most of the City of Melville, a part of the City of Canning and a small portion of the City of Cockburn and is located south of the Swan and Canning rivers. Suburbs presently included are:^[14]

City of Melville

• Alfred Cove
• Applecross
• Ardross
• Attadale
• Bateman
• Bicton
• Booragoon
• Brentwood
• Bull Creek
• Kardinya (part)
• Leeming (part)
• Melville
• Mount Pleasant
• Murdoch
• Myaree
• Willagee
• Winthrop

City of Canning

• Canning Vale
• Ferndale
• Lynwood
• Parkwood
• Riverton
• Rossmoyne
• Shelley
• Willetton
• Wilson

City of Cockburn

• Leeming (part)

Members

Election results

References

1. ^ "Tangney - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
2. ^ Josh Zimmerman (21 May 2022). "Federal Election 2022: Ben Morton set to lose 'safe seat' of Tangney in Liberals' WA bloodbath". The West Australian. Seven West Media. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
3. ^ "Western Australia goes all in on red – and it could deliver Labor majority government". The Guardian. 22 May 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
4. ^ "ABC "Australia Votes" - Tangney Electorate Profile". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 9 June 2023.
5. ^ "Dumped MP re-endorsed for federal seat". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. AAP. 8 October 2006. Retrieved 24 October 2007.
6. ^ Robin, Myriam (2016-04-13). "We read the not-so-erotic thriller that brought down Dennis Jensen". Crikey. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
7. ^ Clarke, Jenna (2016-04-16). "Dennis Jensen MP's The Skywarriors erotic book: reviewed". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
8. ^ Jensen, Dennis (2016). The Skywarriors. OCLC 951640930
9. ^ Knott, Matthew. "Chinese-Australian voters punished Coalition for hostile rhetoric". Sydney Morning Herald. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
10. ^ Fang, Jason; Xing, Dong; Handley, Erin. "Chinese-Australian voters helped sway the election result. So what issues mattered most to them?". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
11. ^ https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2025/guide/tang
12. ^ Muller, Damon (14 November 2017). "The process of federal redistributions: a quick guide". Parliament of Australia. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
13. ^ "Redistribution of Western Australia into electoral divisions". www.aec.gov.au. August 2021.
14. ^ "Profile of the electoral division of Tangney (WA)". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 24 April 2016.

External links

• Division of Tangney - Australian Electoral Commission