Electoral District of Marrickville - History

History

Created in 1894, Marrickville is one of the more left-leaning electorates in the Sydney area. It has traditionally been an ALP stronghold, but has become less so as the Greens support has been on the rise in recent years. The Liberal Party has not featured in the final two-candidate count since 1991, beaten in 1995 by the short lived single issue party No Aircraft Noise and since then by the Greens.

Labor first won the seat in 1910 in the person of Thomas Crawford. In 1916, he joined other pro-conscription Labor MPs in forming the Nationalist Party of Australia. Simpson was defeated in 1917 by Labor's Carlo Lazzarini, the first member of the NSW parliament with an Italian name. Lazzarini held it until the seat was abolished in 1920. He served for the next seven years in the multi-member electorate of Western Suburbs. Marrackville was recreated in 1927 with the reintroduction of single-member electorates. Larrazini was reelected as the member for this seat, and held it until his death in 1952.

The seat was then held for twenty years by Norm Ryan, who for part of that time was Minister for Public Works and oversaw the building of the Sydney Opera House. After being elected 7 times, he stood aside for fellow ALP member Tom Cahill (the son of former premier Joseph Cahill), who held the seat until his death in 1983. The resulting by-election was won by Andrew Refshauge, who was the deputy premier from April 4, 1995 until his resignation on August 10, 2005. At the general election in 2003, Refshauge won with a 10.7% two party preferred majority over Greens candidate Colin Hesse.

Refshauge's sudden retirement in 2005 sparked another by-election on September 17, held simultaneously with by-elections in Macquarie Fields and Maroubra. While the Liberal Party did not field a candidate, the ALP faced a strong challenger in the Deputy Mayor of Marrickville, Sam Byrne, running as a Greens candidate. The ALP subsequently drafted Education Minister Carmel Tebbutt, who was then a member of the Legislative Council, as their candidate, as she was seen to be the best chance of holding the seat. Despite Tebbutt's profile, she faced significant challenges from Byrne, but ultimately won out - although the Green vote was the highest in Australian history. Tebbutt retained the seat in the 2007 and 2011 state elections, though her majority has been successively reduced. Tebbutt is married to federal minister Anthony Albanese, the member for the federal electorate of Grayndler; most of Marrickville is located in Grayndler.