Kalgoorlie is an electoral district of Western Australia. As in other districts, the electoral district of Kalgoorlie elects a single person to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly. The elected person is then known as the Member for Kalgoorlie, and is said to hold the seat of Kalgoorlie. As of 2001, the Member for Kalgoorlie is Matt Birney who holds the seat for the Liberal Party by a margin of 10.8%.

Profile

The district covers the city of Kalgoorlie and parts of Boulder, the electorate of Kalgoorlie is a small urban seat of 67 km². It is entirely surrounded by the electorate of Murchison-Eyre, an electorate that covers an area more than eighteen thousand times larger than Kalgoorlie. Electoral enrolment has fallen by more than 5% in the past two years.

History

Kalgoorlie was held by the Labor Party from 1923 until lost to the Liberal Party against the trend at the 2001 election. Previous members include former Deputy Premier and later Labor Leader, Ian Taylor, from 1981 until his resignation in March 1996 to contest the Federal seat of Kalgoorlie. Despite initial concerns that Labor would lose his state seat at a by-election, Labor won with 54.4% of the two-party preferred vote, a swing against Labor of 3.3%. That result was repeated at the 1996 state election, but in 2001, Labor's Megan Anwyl suffered a 5.5% swing, losing to the Liberal Party's Matt Birney, whose final margin of victory was boosted by the One Nation policy of directing preferences against sitting MPs, Anwyl becoming the only Labor MP to lose their seat at the 2001 election.

Past Members

William Johnson 1901-1905 Labor

Sir Norbert Keenan 1905-1911 Liberal,

Albert Green 1911-1914 Labor

George McLeod 1914-1921 Labor

John Boyland 1921-1923 Independent National

James Cunningham 1923-1936 labor

Herbert Styants 1936-1953 Labor

Thomas Evans 1953-1980 labor

Edward Evans 1980-1981 Labor

Ian Taylor 1981-1996 Labor

Megan Anwyl 1996-2001 Labor