Division of Wills

Wills Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Wills (green) in Victoria
Created	1949
MP	Peter Khalil
Party	Labor
Namesake	William Wills
Area	57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is an Australian Electoral Division of Victoria.

The division includes the northern Melbourne suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Fawkner, Glenroy, and Essendon Airport. It was named after William John Wills, of the Burke and Wills expedition.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	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

Wills has been one of the safest Labor seats in the country. It has been held by Labor except between the 1992 by-election and the 1996 federal election. During this time it was held by independent Phil Cleary. The seat was held by Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons. It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament. A record 22 people stood for election. It was won by an independent, Phil Cleary. However he was on unpaid leave from the state education system and the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the government from standing for election. No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.

Election results

2022 Australian federal election: Wills
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Peter Khalil	35,449	38.87	−5.39
	Greens	Sarah Jefford	25,793	28.28	+2.01
	Liberal	Tom Wright	15,771	17.29	−0.76
	United Australia	Irene Zivkovic	3,352	3.68	+0.54
	Socialist Alliance	Sue Bolton	3,096	3.39	+3.39
	Victorian Socialists	Emma Black	2,714	2.98	−1.53
	One Nation	Jill Tindal	2,554	2.80	+2.80
	Animal Justice	Leah Horsfall	1,680	1.84	−1.92
	Australian Federation	Sam Sergi	789	0.87	+0.87
Total formal votes			91,198	94.95	−0.77
Informal votes			4,855	5.05	+0.77
Turnout			96,053	88.61	−2.55
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Peter Khalil	69,104	75.77	+0.06
	Liberal	Tom Wright	22,094	24.23	−0.06
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Labor	Peter Khalil	53,415	58.57	+0.10
	Greens	Sarah Jefford	37,783	41.43	−0.10
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.10

References

• Division of Wills – Australian Electoral Commission

Other websites

• Kelvin Thomson's website

Preceded by Wannon

Division represented by the Prime Minister 1983–1991 Bob Hawke

Succeeded by Blaxland