Division of Calwell

The Division of Calwell (Template:IPAc-en) is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria.

Calwell contains the outer north-western fringe of Melbourne. It includes the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Dallas, Coolaroo, Greenvale, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park, Craigieburn and Mickleham.<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Calwell has been a safe Labor seat since it was created in 1984. Calwell has had only three members, Dr. Andrew Theophanous, from 1984 to 2001, former MP Maria Vamvakinou, from 2001 to 2025, and incumbent MP Basem Abdo.<ref name=":0" /> All three served as members of the Australian Labor Party.

History

File:Arthur Calwell 1966.jpg

Arthur Calwell, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1984 and is named for Arthur Calwell, who was Minister for Immigration 1945–1949 and Leader of the Australian Labor Party 1960–1967.

Calwell has been a safe Labor seat since it was first contested. The seat's first MP elected in 1984 was Andrew Theophanous. After failing to retain Labor preselection due to issues of criminality, Theophanous unsuccessfully contested the 2001 election as an Independent, polling 9.6% of the vote.<ref name=green>Template:Cite news</ref> The current Member for Calwell, since the 2001 federal election, is Maria Vamvakinou, a member of the Australian Labor Party. Calwell is currently Labor's second safest seat, with 68.80% on the 2PP.

At the 2011 Census, Calwell had the nation's most stable population, with only 25.6% of residents having moved in the last five years. The electorate had the nation's third highest proportion of Catholics (38.5%) and the third highest proportion of residents of Islamic faith (16.8%), the highest in Victoria.<ref name=green/>

In 2017, Calwell had the highest "no" vote for marriage equality in Victoria, with 56.8% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "No".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Calwell was the seat of a historically unique contest in the 2025 federal election, as a full preference count had to be undertaken to determine which candidate would join Labor in the two-candidate preferred vote. Of the 13 candidates that ran in Calwell (in itself the equal-biggest candidate list of any seat in the 2025 election), the Liberal Party, the Greens and three separate independents each received between 6% and 16% of the first-preference vote, making it difficult to project both preference flows and the order in which candidates would be eliminated.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Due to the unprecedented nature of the count and public interest in the result, the Australian Electoral Commission gave live updates of the full preference count on their website, stating it was "the most complex preference count the AEC has ever conducted".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Boundaries

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The division is located in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne. It covers an area of approximately Template:Convert from Template:VICcity in the north to Template:VICcity in the south and from Template:VICcity in the west to Template:VICcity in the east. Localities include Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity and Template:VICcity; as well as part of Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity, Template:VICcity and Template:VICcity.<ref name=aecprofile>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Demographics

Calwell is a diverse and socially conservative electorate.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Calwell includes Victoria's largest Iraqi community along with Turkish and Lebanese diaspora.<ref name=":1" /> While a stronghold for the centre-left Labor Party, the religious migrant community rallied against same-sex marriage in 2017, with 17.7% of the electorate from an Islamic background, six times the state average, while 34% are Catholic, 12% higher than the rest of the state.<ref name=":1" /> At the 2021 census, 23.8% of Hume residents (Victorian average: 4.2%) reported their religion as Islam and 26.6% (Victorian average: 20.5%) as Catholic.<ref name="Census21">Template:Census 2021 AUS</ref>

Members

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
Template:Australian party style|	File:Labor Placeholder.png	Andrew Theophanous Template:Small	Labor	1 December 1984 – 18 April 2000	Previously held the Division of Burke. Lost seat
Template:Australian party style|			Independent	18 April 2000 – 10 November 2001
Template:Australian party style|	File:Maria Vamvakinou MP 2005.jpg	Maria Vamvakinou Template:Small	Labor	10 November 2001 – 28 March 2025	Retired
Template:Australian party style|	File:Basem Abdo at 2025 Calwell results declaration (cropped).JPG	Basem Abdo Template:Small	Labor	3 May 2025 – present	Incumbent

Election results

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Template:ExcerptThe 2025 federal election result in the outer-Melbourne seat of Calwell, also labelled as Australia’s “most unpredictable seat” exposed a major flaw in the national media landscape: a severe lack of local journalism. Despite its political complexity and significance, Calwell received minimal media attention due to being a “news desert”, underscoring the urgent need for greater investment in local news and public broadcasting to ensure diverse communities are represented and understood in national discourse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

External links

• Division of Calwell – Australian Electoral Commission