Division of Wills

The Division of Wills is an Australian electoral division of Victoria. It is currently represented by Peter Khalil of the Australian Labor Party.

The electorate encompasses most of the suburbs in the City of Merri-bek in Melbourne's north, including Brunswick, Brunswick East, Brunswick West, Coburg, Coburg North, Fawkner, Glenroy, Hadfield, Oak Park, Pascoe Vale and Pascoe Vale South, as well as some suburbs in the City of Yarra including Carlton North, Fitzroy North and Princes Hill ().

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.

When the division was created in 1949, it partially replaced the abolished Division of Bourke around the Coburg and Pascoe Vale area. The new division also included Essendon which was previously in the Division of Maribyrnong. In 1955, it lost the Essendon and Pascoe Vale areas, but gained areas to the south at Brunswick West and part of Brunswick. In 1968, it regained the Pascoe Vale areas, gained the entire suburb of Brunswick as well as Brunswick East. In 1977, it lost parts of its southern portions, but gained Oak Park to the north-west and Preston and Thornbury to the east. In 1984, it gained part of Reservoir near Edwardes Lake, and the boundaries at Preston and Thornbury were cut back to the Epping railway line.

Since the creation of the City of Moreland (now City of Merri-bek) in 1994, the division has only included the entirety of the local government area between 2010 and 2018, but contained the majority of it at other times.

History

thumb|left|[[William John Wills|William Wills, the division's namesake]]

The division was named after William John Wills of Burke and Wills fame. It was created in the 1949 redistribution.

Wills has been in Labor hands for its entire existence except between the 1992 by-election and 1996, when it was held by independent Phil Cleary. Its highest-profile member was Bob Hawke, who was Prime Minister of Australia from 1983 until 1991. The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons: It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament; it had a record twenty-two candidates standing; it was won by an independent; the results were thrown out as the winner, Phil Cleary, was on unpaid leave from the state education system (the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the Crown 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.

thumb|A polling place in Wills at the [[2025 Australian federal election|2025 federal election, with material for Labor's Peter Khalil and the Greens' Samantha Ratnam]]

While Wills remains a traditional Labor stronghold, demographic changes and the rise of The Greens has seen Wills, along with the neighbouring seat of Cooper, become Labor-Green contests in recent years. In 2016, Labor's margin versus Greens candidate and City of Merri-bek Mayor Samantha Ratnam dropped below 5 percent after a swing of more than 10 percent to Ratnam, despite the traditional 2PP margin (versus The Liberals) of over 20 percent making it one of the safest Labor seats in the country when considered against the Coalition. Labor's margin over the Greens increased to over 8 percent at the 2019 election, and remained almost unchanged at the 2022 Election.

{| class="wikitable"

|+Two-party-preferred vote in Wills, 1996–2022

! colspan="2" |Election

!1996

!1998

!2001

!2004

!2007

!2010

!2013

!2016

!2019

!2022

|- align="right" style="border-bottom: 2px solid darkgray;"

| width="1pt" | 

|Labor

| |55.77%

| |70.96%

| |69.42%

| |66.90%

| |72.41%

| |72.64%

| |65.20%

| |54.88%

| |58.17%

| |58.57%

|- align="right"

| width="1pt" | 

|Independent (Phil Cleary)

|44.23%

|- align="right" style="border-bottom: 2px solid darkgray;"

| width="1pt" | 

|Liberal

|29.04%

|30.56%

|33.10%

|27.59%

|27.36%

|- align="right" style="border-bottom: 2px solid darkgray;"

| width="1pt" | 

|Greens

|34.80%

|45.12%

|41.83%

|41.43%

|- align="right"

! colspan="2" |Government

! |L/NP

! |ALP

! |L/NP

! |ALP

Demographics

Wills has undergone inner-city gentrification, particularly in Brunswick, which has led to a surge in support for the Greens in the seat. However, the Labor vote increases the further residents live from the Green heartland of Brunswick.

Wills has relatively large immigrant communities, with populations of second-generation Greek and Italian immigrants. According to the 2016 census, 47.8% of electors had both parents born outside of Australia.

As of 2016, 7.7% of electors spoke Italian, 4.7% Arabic, and 4.5% Greek at home.