The Division of Greenway is an Australian Electoral Division in New South Wales. The division was created in 1984 and is named for Francis Greenway, an ex-convict who became a prominent architect in colonial Sydney.
It is located in the north-west suburbs of Sydney, traditionally been north and east portions of the Blacktown district. It currently also includes small portions of Holroyd and Parramatta Council areas. Suburbs and towns include Acacia Gardens, Girraween, Glenwood, Kellyville Ridge, Kings Langley, Kings Park, Lalor Park, Parklea, Seven Hills, Stanhope Gardens, The Ponds, Toongabbie and parts of Blacktown, Pendle Hill, Prospect, Quakers Hill, Riverstone, Rouse Hill, Schofields and Vineyard.
For most of its history, Greenway was a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party. However, demographic changes in the areas north of Blacktown, specifically Kellyville Ridge, Stanhope Gardens and Glenwood resulted in a shift away from Labor at the 2001 election. At the 2004 election this trend continued and the seat was won by the Liberal Party following the retirement of the sitting MP and an extensive Liberal campaign. Louise Markus, a Pentecostal social worker and member of Hillsong Church, defeated Ed Husic, a former political advisor and a non-practicing Muslim, to take the seat by a small margin of 0.6%. A large Informal vote of 11.83%, the highest in the 2004 election contributed to this result.
On 13 September 2006, the Australian Electoral Commission announced that the seat would be redistributed. The Hawkesbury area towns moved to Greenway from the Division of Macquarie, and lost traditional Labor-voting areas such as Blacktown, Dean Park, Lalor Park and Seven Hills as well as the Liberal-leaning areas of Kings Langley and Seven Hills North. This boosted the notional Liberal majority to 11.7%, making it on paper a safe Liberal seat. However, the margin dropped to 4.7% as of the 2007 federal election, when it experienced a 6.9% swing towards Labor and became a marginal Liberal seat.
The seat was redistributed again in 2009, causing a large change in its demographics. Under redistribution, the seat of Greenway has lost a major portion of the Liberal voting Hawkesbury region including the cities of Richmond and Windsor. In return, Greenway gained the Labor voting suburbs of Toongabie, Seven Hills and Pendle Hill. Following the redistribution, the seat is now notionally Labor held on a margin of 5%.
Currently, the seat is held by Labor's Michelle Rowland on a slim margin of 0.82% (based upon current polling). The electorate itself is a demographically diverse population that includes the working class suburbs of Blacktown, Lalor Park and Toongabie which are Labor leaning, as well as the high income, Liberal leaning suburbs of Kellyville Ridge, Stanhope Gardens, Glenwood, The Ponds and Kings Langley.
Read more about Division Of Greenway: Members, Election Results
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