| Wills Australian House of Representatives Division |
|
|---|---|
 Division of Wills (green) in Victoria |
|
| Created: | 1949 |
| MP: | Kelvin Thomson |
| Party: | Labor |
| Namesake: | William Wills |
| Electors: | 96,185 |
| Area: | 57 km² (22 sq mi) |
| Demographic: | Inner Metropolitan |
The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division (electorate) of Victoria. It is currently held by the Australian Labor Party's Kelvin Thomson.
The electorate encompasses many of the suburbs in the City of Moreland in Melbourne's north, including Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner, Glenroy, and Essendon Airport. It was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame.
One of Labor's safest seats with a 20 per cent swing required for the Liberals to win, Wills has been always been held by the ALP except between the 1992 by-election and 1996, when it was held by independent Phil Cleary. Its highest-profile member was former Prime Minister Bob Hawke.
The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the Crown from standing for election). No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.
Members
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Bryson | Labor | 1949–1955 | |
| Labor (Anti-Communist) | 1955–1955 | ||
| Gordon Bryant | Labor | 1955–1980 | |
| Bob Hawke | Labor | 1980–1992 | |
| Phil Cleary | Independent | 1992–1996 | |
| Kelvin Thomson | Labor | 1996–present | |
Election results
| Australian federal election, 2007: Wills | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labor | Kelvin Thomson | 49,050 | 56.89 | +3.07 | |
| Liberal | Claude Tomisich | 21,166 | 24.55 | -4.15 | |
| Greens | David Collis | 11,912 | 13.82 | +0.82 | |
| Democrats | Edward Clarke | 2,005 | 2.33 | +0.91 | |
| Family First | Ihab Kelada | 1,233 | 1.43 | -0.12 | |
| Socialist Alliance | Zane Alcorn | 624 | 0.72 | -0.34 | |
| CEC | Craig Isherwood | 227 | 0.26 | -0.19 | |
| Total formal votes | 86,217 | 95.67 | +1.17 | ||
| Informal votes | 3,902 | 4.33 | -1.17 | ||
| Turnout | 90,119 | 93.69 | +0.70 | ||
| Two Candidate Preferred Result | |||||
| Labor | Kelvin Thomson | 62,432 | 72.41 | +5.51 | |
| Liberal | Claude Tomisich | 23,785 | 27.59 | -5.51 | |
| Labor hold | Swing | -3.67 | |||
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