Electoral district of Gosford

Gosford is an electoral district of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in Australia. The electorate covers the western parts of the City of Gosford, including central Gosford and Woy Woy.[1]

Gosford New South Wales—Legislative Assembly
Location in Central Coast region
State	New South Wales
Dates current	1950–present
MP	Liesl Tesch
Party	Labor
Electors	56,435 (2019)
Area	867.15 km^2 (334.8 sq mi)
Electorates around Gosford: Hawkesbury Cessnock Wyong Hawkesbury Gosford Terrigal The Entrance Hawkesbury Hornsby Pittwater

It is represented by Liesl Tesch of the Labor Party, elected at the 2017 by-election.

The electorate was created in 1950. At the redistribution prior to the 2007 election much of the district of Gosford, then held by Chris Hartcher for the Liberal Party, became part of the district of Terrigal while Gosford absorbed most of the former district of Peats, then held by Marie Andrews for the Labor Party. Antony Green describes the redistribution as effectively being that Gosford was renamed Terrigal while Peats was renamed Gosford.[2]

Demographics

The percentage of people in Gosford who were born overseas was 15% which is slightly lower than the national average at 22.2% and the percentage of people who have Australian citizenship is only slightly higher than the national average of 86.1% at 88.4%. As for languages spoken at home English only was the most common language spoken by 90.4% of the population which is substantially higher than national average at 78.5%. Italian was second with 0.4%, while no other language was spoken by more than 0.3% of the total population. Anglicanism was the most common religion at 28.2%, followed by Catholicism at 26.6%, No Religion with 14.9% and Uniting Church at 5.6%. Median incomes for the population aged 15 years and over was only slightly lower in both weekly individual income and weekly household income but slightly higher in the weekly family income category.[3]

Members for Gosford

Member		Party	Period
	Harold Jackson [4]	Liberal	1950–1965
	Ted Humphries [5]	Liberal	1965–1971
	Keith O'Connell [6]	Labor	1971–1973
	Malcolm Brooks [7]	Liberal	1973–1976
	Brian McGowan [8]	Labor	1976–1988
	Chris Hartcher [9]	Liberal	1988–2007
	Marie Andrews [10]	Labor	2007–2011
	Chris Holstein [11]	Liberal	2011–2015
	Kathy Smith	Labor	2015–2017
	Liesl Tesch [12]	Labor	2017–present

Election results

2019 New South Wales state election: Gosford [13][14]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Liesl Tesch	21,505	44.22	+5.56
	Liberal	Susan Dengate	17,529	36.04	−6.51
	Greens	Hillary Morris	4,405	9.06	+0.05
	Shooters, Fishers, Farmers	Larry Freeman	2,307	4.74	+4.74
	Animal Justice	Patrick Murphy	1,678	3.45	+3.45
	Sustainable Australia	Judy Singer	1,213	2.49	+2.49
Total formal votes			48,637	96.45	−0.39
Informal votes			1,788	3.55	+0.39
Turnout			50,425	89.35	−1.26
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Liesl Tesch	25,048	57.27	+7.04
	Liberal	Susan Dengate	18,691	42.73	−7.04
	Labor hold		Swing	+7.04

References

1. "Gosford". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
2. "Terrigal- NSW Electorate, Candidates, Results". NSW Votes 2019. ABC News. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
3. "2006 Census QuickStats : Gosford (State Electoral Division)". Censusdata.abs.gov.au. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
4. "Mr Harold Ernest Jackson (1902-1980)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
5. "Mr Edward Harris Humphries (1914–1994)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
6. "Mr Keith O'Connell (1923-2006)". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
7. "Mr Malcolm Harold Brooks (1930- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
8. "Mr Brian McGowan (1935-1994 )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
9. "Mr (Chris) Christopher Peter Hartcher (1946- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 15 October 2019.
10. "Ms Marie Therese Andrews (1940- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 27 April 2019.
11. "Mr Christopher David Holstein (1958- )". Former Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
12. "Ms Liesl Dorothy Tesch, AM". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
13. "Gosford: First Preference Votes". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
14. "Gosford: Distribution of Preferences". 2019 NSW election results. NSW Electoral Commission. Retrieved 22 September 2019.