Division of Cowper

Cowper Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Cowper in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election
Created	1901
MP	Pat Conaghan
Party	Nationals
Namesake	Sir Charles Cowper
Electors	129,887 (2022)
Area	7,296 km2 (2,817.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Rural and provincial
Electorates around Cowper: New England Page Pacific Ocean New England Cowper Pacific Ocean New England Lyne Pacific Ocean

The Division of Cowper is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales.

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

History

Sir Charles Cowper, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 65 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named after Sir Charles Cowper, an early Premier of New South Wales.

Except for one brief break, the seat has been held by the National Party (previously known as the Country Party) and its predecessors since 1919. Its most prominent member has been Sir Earle Page, former leader of the Country Party and interim Prime Minister of Australia in 1939. He represented Cowper from 1919 to 1961, longer than any other MP who represented one seat for his entire career. It has usually been a fairly safe National Party seat, and became more so when its more urbanised area (including Page's hometown of Grafton) was shifted to the newly created Division of Page in 1984.

The division is located on the north coast of New South Wales, and on its current boundaries takes in the towns of Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Kempsey, Macksville and Nambucca Heads.

In February 2016, New South Wales federal electoral districts were redistributed. The northern parts of Cowper, from Sapphire Beach to Red Rock were shifted to the division of Page. Since the 2019 election, the member for Cowper has been Pat Conaghan, representing the National Party of Australia.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Francis Clarke (1857–1939)	Protectionist	30 March 1901 – 16 December 1903	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Hastings and Macleay. Served as Chief Government Whip in the House under Deakin. Lost seat
		Henry Lee (1856–1927)	Free Trade	16 December 1903 – 1906	Lost seat
			Anti-Socialist	1906 – 12 December 1906
		John Thomson (1862–1934)	Protectionist	12 December 1906 – 26 May 1909	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Manning. Served as Chief Government Whip in the House under Hughes. Lost seat
			Liberal	26 May 1909 – 17 February 1917
			Nationalist	17 February 1917 – 13 December 1919
		(Sir) Earle Page (1880–1961)	Farmers and Settlers' Association	13 December 1919 – 22 January 1920	Served as minister under Bruce, Lyons, Menzies and Fadden. Served as Prime Minister in 1939. Lost seat
			Country	22 January 1920 – 9 December 1961
		Frank McGuren (1909–1990)	Labor	9 December 1961 – 30 November 1963	Lost seat
		Ian Robinson (1925–2017)	Country	30 November 1963 – 2 May 1975	Previously held the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Casino. Transferred to the Division of Page
			National Country	2 May 1975 – 16 October 1982
			Nationals	16 October 1982 – 1 December 1984
		Garry Nehl (1934–2023)		1 December 1984 – 8 October 2001	Retired
		Luke Hartsuyker (1959–)		10 November 2001 – 11 April 2019	Served as minister under Turnbull. Retired
		Pat Conaghan (1971–)		18 May 2019 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Cowper

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in New South Wales § Cowper.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Cowper

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	Pat Conaghan	43,909	39.47	−7.60
	Independent	Caz Heise	29,206	26.26	26.26
	Labor	Keith McMullen	15,566	13.99	0.20
	One Nation	Faye Aspiotis	9,047	8.13	8.13
	Greens	Timothy Nott	6,518	5.86	−0.08
	Liberal Democrats	Simon Chaseling	4,316	3.88	3.88
	United Australia	Joshua Fairhall	2,674	2.40	−0.62
Total formal votes			111,236	95.07	2.85
Informal votes			5,770	4.93	−2.85
Turnout			117,006	90.22	−1.81
Notional two-party-preferred count
	National	Pat Conaghan	66,153	59.47	−2.41
	Labor	Keith McMullen	45,083	40.53	2.41
Two-candidate-preferred result
	National	Pat Conaghan	58,204	52.32	−4.47
	Independent	Caz Heise	53,032	47.68	47.68
	National hold

Alluvial diagram for preference flows in the seat of Cowper in the 2022 federal election. Y indicates at what stage the winning candidate had over 50% of the votes and was declared the winner.