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Division of Wills facts for kids

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Wills
Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wills 2010.png
Division of Wills (green) in Victoria
Created 1949
MP Kelvin Thomson
Party Labor
Namesake William Wills
Area 57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
Demographic Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is a special area in Victoria, Australia. It's set up for people to vote for their representative in the Australian Parliament. This area includes northern Melbourne suburbs like Brunswick, Coburg, and Glenroy. It's named after William John Wills, a famous explorer from the Burke and Wills expedition.

Who Represents Wills?

This section tells you about the people who have represented the Wills area in the Australian Parliament over the years. These people are called Members of Parliament (MPs).

Member Party Years in Parliament
  Bill Bryson Labor 1949–1955
  Labor (Anti-Communist) 1955–1955
  Gordon Bryant Labor 1955–1980
  Bob Hawke Labor 1980–1992
  Phil Cleary Independent 1992–1996
  Kelvin Thomson Labor 1996–present

The Wills area has almost always voted for the Labor Party. This makes it one of the "safest" Labor seats in Australia. This means it's very likely a Labor Party member will win the election here.

A Famous Prime Minister from Wills

One of the most well-known members for Wills was Bob Hawke. He later became the Prime Minister of Australia. This shows how important the Wills area has been in Australian politics.

The Unusual 1992 Election

In 1992, something very interesting happened in Wills. Bob Hawke retired from Parliament, so a special election was held to find a new representative. This is called a "by-election."

  • A record 22 people wanted to become the new MP for Wills!
  • An independent candidate named Phil Cleary won the election. An independent person doesn't belong to a major political party.
  • However, there was a rule in the Australian Constitution that said people working for the government couldn't run for election. Phil Cleary was on leave from his job in the state education system.
  • A court later decided that his election win wasn't valid because of this rule.
  • Even though the court made this decision, another by-election wasn't held. This was because a general election for the whole country was going to happen very soon anyway.

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