Division of Fowler

Fowler Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Fowler in New South Wales, as of the 2016 federal election
Created	1984
MP	Dai Le
Party	Western Sydney Community
Namesake	Lilian Fowler
Electors	108,517 (2022)
Area	69 km2 (26.6 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer metropolitan

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

Fowler is based in Sydney's outer southwestern suburbs of Liverpool, Warwick Farm, Chipping Norton, Cabramatta, Canley Vale, Mount Pritchard, Abbotsbury, Bossley Park, Edensor Park, Greenfield Park, Prairiewood, St Johns Park, Wakeley, Bonnyrigg, Canley Heights, Carramar and Fairfield East.

Fowler is a diverse electorate, containing immigrant communities of Vietnamese and Chinese ancestry. According to the 2016 census, only 40% of electors were born in Australia, while 15.2% were born in Vietnam. At the time of the 2022 Australian federal election, 16% of Fowler's population possessed Vietnamese ancestry, and 11% possessed Chinese heritage.

The current MP is Dai Le, who was elected as an independent in 2022. She is the first non-Labor politician to represent Fowler. Le has strong links to the Vietnamese community in Fowler; she was born in Vietnam and migrated to Australia as an eleven year old after three years in a Philippines refugee camp.

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

Lilian Fowler, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1984 and is named after Lilian Fowler, the first female mayor in Australia.

The division includes the Sydney suburbs of Cabramatta, Cabramatta West, Canley Heights, Chipping Norton, Edensor Park, Fairfield East, Greenfield Park, Liverpool, St Johns Park, Wakeley, and Warwick Farm; as well as parts of Abbotsbury, Bonnyrigg, Bossley Park, Canley Vale, Carramar, Fairfield, Fairfield West, Guildford, Moorebank, Mount Pritchard, Prairiewood, and Yennora.

The member for Fowler from the 2010 federal election to the 2022 federal election has been Chris Hayes, a member of the Australian Labor Party.

2022 election

After announcing that he would retire at the 2022 federal election, Hayes endorsed Tu Le, a locally resident lawyer, to succeed him. A factional dispute involving winnable seats on the Senate ticket saw Senator Kristina Keneally parachuted into the election for the "safe" seat in order to resolve the dispute. It would also allow Keneally to serve on the ministerial or shadow frontbench following the election. Keneally's move was heavily criticised both in the community and within the party for her decision to usurp the position of a local candidate, with Keneally living on Scotland Island on Sydney's Northern Beaches, over an hour's drive from the electorate.

Dai Le, a local independent who was serving as the deputy mayor of the Fairfield City Council announced her intention to stand for the seat. Dai Le had been a Liberal Party member earlier in her career until her expulsion from the party as her bid for Mayor breached party rules regarding running against an endorsed candidate.

Dai Le won the seat after a major swing against Labor. Keneally's slightly higher first preference vote was not high enough to prevent Le from winning on the two party preferred count. Liberal Party, United Australia, One Nation and Liberal Democrats preferences flowed to Le while the small number of Green votes and voters not following a typical right to left preference flow were not enough to keep it in the hands of Labor. It was the first time Labor had lost the seat, after 13 straight election wins.

Demographics

Population

The population as at the 2021 census in the division of Fowler was 173,523 people.

People Persons count based on place of usual residence on Census night	Fowler	%
Male	85,684	49.4
Female	87,839	50.6
Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people	1,494	0.9
Total	173,523	100

The Division of Fowler is one of Australia's most multicultural communities with a very high percentage of migrants and first generation Australians. As at the 2021 Census the breakdown of country of birth was;

Country of birth	Fowler	%
Australia	67,784	39.1
Other top responses
Vietnam	17,813	16.0
Iraq	15,022	8.7
Cambodia	5,708	3.3
China (excluding SARs and Taiwan)	3,464	2.0
Syria	2,561	1.5

Fowler has a high multicultural population compared to the national and state averages. 77.3% of the population of Fowler had both parents born overseas. While the general percentage of all Australians with both parents born overseas is 36.7%.

Country of birth of parents, stated responses	Fowler	%	New South Wales	%	Australia	%
Both parents born overseas	134,212	77.3	3,181,894	39.4	9,321,603	36.7
Father only born overseas	5,811	3.3	509,789	6.3	1,670,476	6.6
Mother only born overseas	4,176	2.4	369,492	4.6	1,257,942	4.9
Both parents born in Australia	16,758	9.7	3,529,168	43.7	11,663,577	45.9

Median weekly income

The median weekly personal income for people aged 15 years and over in Fowler (Commonwealth Electoral Division) as at the 2021 Census was lower than the national and state averages.

Median weekly incomes People aged 15 years and over	Fowler	New South Wales	Australia
Personal	521	813	805
Family	1,529	2,185	2,120
Household	1,403	1,829	1,746

Employment

There were 62,077 people who reported being in the labour force in the week before census night in Fowler (Commonwealth Electoral Division). Of these, 47.8% were employed full time, 26.3% were employed part-time and 8.6% were unemployed. Unemployment is significantly higher that the New South Wales state average of 4.9% and the national average of 5.1%

Employment People who reported being in the labour force, aged 15 years and over	Fowler	%	New South Wales	%	Australia	%
Worked full-time	29,681	47.8	2,136,610	55.2	7,095,103	55.9
Worked part-time	16,320	26.3	2,136,610	29.7	3,962,550	31.2
Away from work	10,723	17.3	395,888	10.2	991,758	7.8
Unemployed	5,354	8.6	189,852	4.9	646,442	5.1

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Ted Grace (1931–2020)	Labor	1 December 1984 – 31 August 1998	Retired
		Julia Irwin (1951–)		3 October 1998 – 19 July 2010	Retired
		Chris Hayes (1955–)		21 August 2010 – 11 April 2022	Previously held the Division of Werriwa. Served as Chief Government Whip in the House under Gillard and Rudd. Retired
		Dai Le (1968–)	Independent	21 May 2022 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Fowler

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

2022 Australian federal election: Fowler

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Kristina Keneally	30,973	36.06	−18.48
	Independent	Dai Le	25,346	29.51	+29.51
	Liberal	Courtney Nguyen	14,740	17.16	−12.89
	United Australia	Lela Panich	5,512	6.42	+2.09
	Greens	Avery Howard	4,191	4.88	−0.66
	One Nation	Tony Margos	3,047	3.55	+3.55
	Liberal Democrats	Peter Runge	2,094	2.44	+2.44
Total formal votes			85,903	89.48	+2.59
Informal votes			10,098	10.52	−2.59
Turnout			96,001	88.54	−1.50
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Kristina Keneally	47,864	55.72	–8.27
	Liberal	Courtney Nguyen	38,039	44.28	+8.27
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Independent	Dai Le	44,348	51.63	+51.63
	Labor	Kristina Keneally	41,555	48.37	−15.62
	Independent gain from Labor

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

Primary vote results in Fowler (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Labor

  Liberal

  Greens

  Christian Democrats

  Australian Democrats

  Unity

  Palmer United/United Australia Party

  One Nation

  Independent

Two-candidate-preferred results in Fowler

External links

• Division of Fowler - Australian Electoral Commission