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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Fremantle, Western Australia
Named for: City of Fremantle (after Captain Charles Fremantle (1800-69), captain of the Challenger, which brought the first settlers to Western Australia)
Western Perth: Cockburn, Coolbellup, Fremantle, Hammond Park, Jandacot
Enrolment at 2019 election: 105,383
Enrolment at 2022 election: 116,783 (+10.9)
1999 republic referendum: No 51.7
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 70.1
2023 Voice referendum: No 53.0
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Sitting member:
Hon Josh Wilson (Labor): Elected 2016. Resigned 2018. Elected 2018 by-election, 2019, 2022
Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy
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2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 9.1%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 5.7%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 4.8%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 7.5%
2018 by-election Labor majority over Liberal Democrats: 23.3%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 6.9%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 16.9%
2025 notional Labor majority over Liberal: 16.8%
Status 2022: Very safe Labor
Labor two-party vote 1983-2022
2022 results
Statistics and history
Announced candidates:
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Hon Josh Wilson
Australian Labor Party |
Division of Fremantle
Fremantle has existed since Federation, and has always been based on the port city of Fremantle and surrounding
suburbs. Before 1949 it extended northwards into some of the wealthy areas which are now in the seat of Curtin,
and this made the seat politically marginal. After 1949, however, it was among the safest Labor seats in Australia,
although Labor majorities have slowly fallen as blue-collar employment has declined and the Fremantle area has become
colonised by middle-class people. Thus Fremantle now has a fairly high level of median family income for a safe
Labor seat, and a lower proportion of people born in non English speaking countries than Perth, Stirling or
Swan.
Fremantle, a traditional Labor "leadership seat," has been held by five Labor ministers in a row: Prime Minister
John Curtin,
Kim Beazley senior,
John Dawkins,
Dr Carmen Lawrence, and
Melissa Parke. Lawrence, a former WA
Premier, won a by-election in 1994. But her career in Canberra was haunted by events from her time as Premier, and
she retired in 2007. Parke was (briefly) a minister in the Rudd-Gillard Government. A strong leftist, she was
clearly frustrated with Labor policy under
Bill Shorten and retired in 2016.
Josh Wilson, Labor MP for Fremantle since 2016, was a
Fremantle City Councillor and staffer to Parke before his election. In May 2018, after the High Court's ruling in the case of Senator
Katy Gallagher, it became apparent that
he had not successfully renounced the British citizenship for which he was potentially eligible through his
grandmother. He therefore resigned and succcessfully contested a by-election in July, which the Liberal Party did
not contest. In 2024 Wilson was appointed Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy, making him the sixth MP for
Fremantle in succession to hold office in a Labor government.
Wilson gained a large swing at the 2022 election, making Fremantle one of the safest Labor seats in Australia. But the large
swings to Labor in WA in 2022 were largely due to state issues, particularly arising from the COVID pandemic. This means that the Labor
majority in Fremantle is probably over-stated.
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