Division of Richmond

The Division of Richmond is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of New South Wales. It is located in the far north-east of the state, along the Pacific coast. It adjoins the Queensland border to the north, and encompasses the towns of Tweed Heads, Murwillumbah and Byron Bay.

The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. Historically, it was traditionally been a rural seat and fairly safe for the National Party, which held it for all but six years from 1922 to 2004. For 55 of those years, it was held by three generations of the Anthony family--Larry Anthony (senior) (a minister in the Fadden and Menzies governments), Doug Anthony (Deputy Prime Minister in the Gorton, McMahon and Fraser governments) and Larry Anthony (junior) (a minister in the Howard government)--the first three-generation dynasty in the Australian House of Representatives. However, strong population growth has seen it progressively lose its rural territory to become a more coastal-based and urbanised division, and demographic change has made the seat friendlier to Labor in recent years.

Besides the Anthony family, the division was also held by former Nationals leader Charles Blunt. His tenure was short-lived, however. Just months after becoming leader of the Nationals, he was thrown from office in the 1990 election when the preferences of anti-nuclear activist Helen Caldicott allowed Labor challenger Neville Newell to defeat him despite only winning 27 percent of first preferences. It was only the second time a major party leader had lost his own seat in an election. Larry Anthony (junior) regained the seat for the Nationals in 1996, only to be defeated by Labor's Justine Elliot in 2004--the first time a member of the Anthony family had ever been unseated in an election. In 2007, Elliot technically made Richmond a safe Labor seat by gaining a large swing as Labor won government.