ABOUT HUGHES - WHERE WE ARE & WHO WE ARE

The Federal electorate of Hughes is located on the southern edge of the Sydney metropolitan area on Dharawal and Dharug country. It takes in the southern and western area of the Sutherland Shire and the eastern area of Liverpool LGA.

Hughes is, by far, Sydney’s most natural electorate. More than 50% of its area is covered by the Royal and Heathcote National Parks, Hughes has the longest stretch of coastline of all Sydney electorates, it supports waterways and estuaries such as the Woronora, Georges and Hacking Rivers, that eventually flow into Port Hacking and Botany Bay. Hughes' Southern-most section feeds into Sydney’s drinking water via the Woronora Water Catchment. We cover 369 sq km, making us the largest electorate in greater Sydney.

Our localities

ALFORDS POINT AUDLEY BANGOR BARDEN RIDGE BONNET BAY BONNIE VALE BUNDEENA COMO DEER PARK ENGADINE GARIE BEACH GRAYS POINT GYMEA HAMMONDVILLE HEATHCOTE HOLSWORTHY ILLAWONG JANNALI KAREELA KIRRAWEE LIVERPOOL MILITARY AREA LOFTUS LUCAS HEIGHTS MAIANBAR MENAI MOOREBANK OYSTER BAY PLEASURE POINT ROYAL NATIONAL PARK SANDY POINT SUTHERLAND VOYAGER POINT WATERFALL WATTLE GROVE WORONORA WORONORA HEIGHTS YARRAWARRAH

HUGHES POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

The Federal electorate of Hughes was first created in 1955, we are named after party hoping Prime Minster Billy Hughes.

Quick fact - Billy Hughes Labor PM 1915-1916, Nationalist Labor 1916 - 1917 , Nationalist 1917-1929, Independent 1929, Australian 1929 -1931, United Australia 1931 - 44, Independent 1944 - 1945 and finally Liberal from 1945!
He was Prime Minister from 1915 - 1923

Hughes was held by Labor's Les Johnson from 1955 - 1983, apart from 3 years where Don Dobie held the seat for Liberal ( Don Dobie subsequently represented Cook when the electoral boundaries changed)

From 1983 - 1996 the seat was held by Robert Tickner for Labor.

In 1996 - 2010 Dana Vale held the seat for Liberal.

In 2010 Craig Kelly was elected for the Liberal Party. Since 2013 the local Liberal Party branch has been overridden by successive Liberal Party leaders to keep Craig Kelly as the sitting member.

Kelly resigned from the Liberal Party in February 2021 to sit as an independent. On the 23rd of August 2021 Kelly was announced as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP). At the 2019 election, the UAP achieved just 2.32 percent of the primary vote. They are now our voice in Parliament.

HUGHES - OUR PEOPLE

These statistics are from 2016. No doubt there will be significant changes from the latest 2021 census.

HOW OLD ARE WE AND HOW MANY OF US ARE THERE?

In the 2016 Census, there were 144,289 people in Hughes

The median age of people in Hughes was 38 years. Children aged 0 - 14 years made up 20.7% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 14.4% of the population.

EDUCATION

In Hughes 29.6% of people were attending an educational institution. Of these, 32.0% were in primary school, 24.6% in secondary school and 21.5% in a tertiary or technical institution.

Of people aged 15 and over in Hughes, 15.5% reported having completed Year 12 as their highest level of educational attainment, 18.4% had completed a Certificate III or IV and 11.4% had completed an Advanced Diploma or Diploma.

ANCESTRY AND LANGUAGE

The most common ancestries in Hughes were Australian 26.3%, English 26.1%, Irish 8.8%, Scottish 6.6% and Italian 3.1%.

76.4% of people were born in Australia. The most common countries of birth were England 3.3%, New Zealand 1.4%, China 1.3%, India 1.2% and Philippines 0.8%.

80.4% of people only spoke English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Arabic 1.8%, Greek 1.7%, Mandarin 1.3%, Cantonese 0.9% and Spanish 0.8%.

WORK AND SEEKING WORK

There were 77,961 people who reported being in the labour force in the week before Census night in Hughes. Of these 62.2% were employed full time, 29.8% were employed part-time and 3.7% were unemployed.

Of the employed people in Hughes 3.5% worked in Hospitals (except Psychiatric Hospitals). Other major industries of employment included Primary Education 2.9%, Banking 2.2%, Secondary Education 2.1% and Supermarket and Grocery Stores 1.9%

WHAT WE VALUE ABOUT LIVING IN HUGHES - FROM SURVEYS
I have been speaking with people in Hughes for over 18 month, I have done this with We Are Hughes and getting out and meeting people in the electorate since I announced my candidacy.

The top 3 things we value

The natural environment.

Having both The Royal National Park and Heathcote National park are identified as giving us a unique lifestyle.

Access to the city and beaches.

People outside of Hughes think we are a "long way from the city". This is not how we view ourselves. We know access to the city is easy. The best thing is when we return home we feel "a million miles away".

Community

It is remarked on time and again that we have unique community feel. We feel connected with the people we share our suburbs with. This is shown through community sport, local businesses, and school connections.