page_title: Division of Bennelong
section_title: Electoral history
hierarchical_section_title: Division of Bennelong / Electoral history
caption_attribution_description: English: Original Flickr caption&#160;: Granny Smith Festival. There was a lot of electioneering going on, with the two major parties Liberal (yellow + blue balloons) and Labor (purple balloons) fighting to get the view blocked by their balloons. The Prime Minister John Howard was also there to give his little touch to the day. Comment&#160;: This was during the 2007 Australian federal election campaign in the electorate of Bennelong, John Howard's seat.
context_page_description: The Division of Bennelong is an Australian electorate in New South Wales. The division was set up in 1949. It is named for Bennelong, an Indigenous Australian man who became a friend of the first Governor of New South Wales, Arthur Phillip. Bennelong includes the suburbs of Eastwood, Carlingford, Epping and Ryde.
context_section_description: When the Division of Bennelong was created in 1949, it covered mainly the suburbs of Ryde, Hunters Hill and Lane Cove. These were (and still are) richer areas, and Bennelong was a "safe" Liberal seat.
  Over the years Bennelong has changed into a marginal seat for two reasons. Firstly, the electoral boundary of Bennelong has been changed many times, where it has moved west into Labor voting areas. Rich suburbs like Lane Cove and Hunters Hill in the east are no longer included. The division now includes Eastwood, Epping, Carlingford and working class Ermington in the north and west. Secondly, the type of people living in the division has changed. Since the early 1990s, there has been an increase in migrants from China, Hong Kong, South Korea and India. These are wealthy and conservative people who would support the Liberal Party, but they have not like the Liberal policies on immigration and multiculturalism.
  In the Australian federal 2007 election, the Member for Bennelong, and Prime Minister John Howard, lost the seat to Labor candidate Maxine McKew, after holding it for 33 years. This was only the second time in Australian history that a Prime Minister had lost his own seat in Parliament. The first was Stanley Bruce in 1929.
caption: 2007 federal election in Bennelong
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