The Division of Calwell () is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria.
Calwell contains the outer north-western fringe of Melbourne. It is located entirely within the City of Hume, and includes the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Dallas, Coolaroo, Greenvale, Meadow Heights, Roxburgh Park, Craigieburn and Mickleham.
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. In the 2001 federal election, Maria Vamvakinou was elected as 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.
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. 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".
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.
When the division was first created in 1984, it covered the western suburbs such as , , , , and . In 1989, it lost the areas south of St Albans (inclusive), which were about half of its original area, but gained a massive area to the east towards City of Broadmeadows, such as Melbourne Airport, , and . This was the beginning of the division's gradual shift towards the north-east.
In 2003, the division was significantly shifted northwards and lost all of its areas within City of Brimbank (which was mostly south of the Maribyrnong River). Instead, it became co-extensive with the boundary of City of Hume, gaining areas such as , and from the divisions of Burke (abolished) and McEwen. The losses and gains were reversed in 2010, with the division returning into City of Brimbank and covered areas similar to its pre-2003 boundaries. In 2018, the City of Brimbank areas were lost again, and the division no longer included any of the areas that it covered in 1984. In 2021, the division lost its south-west portion of Melbourne Airport and .
Demographics
Calwell is a diverse and socially conservative electorate. Calwell includes Victoria's largest Iraqi community along with Turkish and Lebanese diaspora.
Members
{| class=wikitable style="text-align:center"
|-
! colspan=2 | Image
! Member
! Party
! Term
! Notes
|-
| |
| rowspan=2 | 100px
| rowspan=2 | Andrew Theophanous<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 1 December 1984 –<br/>18 April 2000
| rowspan=2 | Previously held the Division of Burke. Lost seat
|-
| |
| nowrap | Independent
| nowrap | 18 April 2000 –<br/>10 November 2001
|-
| |
| 100px
| Maria Vamvakinou<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 10 November 2001 –<br/>28 March 2025
| Retired
|-
| |
| 100px
| Basem Abdo<br />
| Labor
| nowrap | 3 May 2025 –<br/>present
| Incumbent
|}
Election results
Notes
References
External links
- Division of Calwell – Australian Electoral Commission