Division of Grayndler

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The Division of Grayndler is an Australian Electoral Division in inner Metropolitan Sydney, New South Wales. The division was created in 1949 and is named for Edward Grayndler (1867-1943), a Member of the New South Wales Legislative Council from 1921 to 1934 and 1936 to 1943, and General Secretary of the Australian Workers Union from 1912 to 1941. It is Australia's second-smallest electorate, covering an area of just 29.3 square kilometres in the inner-southern Sydney metropolitan area, including parts of the inner-west, and today takes in the suburbs of Ashfield, Dulwich Hill, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Newtown and Petersham. Containing manufacturing and service industries and engineering works, it was originally a solidly working-class area. Although migration and gentrification have since radically changed its demography, it has always been a safe seat for the Australian Labor Party, currently enjoying a margin of 22.6%, the safest Federal Labor margin in the country. The seat has for a number of years maintained the strongest vote in the country for the Greens, currently at 21.1%, and until 2001 had a strong Democrat vote as well.

Its most prominent member has been Fred Daly, who was a Cabinet minister in the Whitlam government. Daly was succeeded by Gough Whitlam's son, Tony Whitlam, who served only one term before losing his Labor preselection. According to the ABC, "When Graham Richardson resigned from the Ministry over the Marshall Islands affair before the 1993 election, left-wing power-broker Anthony Albanese organised for Jeanette McHugh to replace him in the Ministry. Being a Minister entitled her to a seat, and as her own seat of Phillip had been abolished, she moved to Grayndler, forcing [Leo] McLeay to move to the neighbouring seat of Watson. Having delivered the seat to the left, Albanese was rewarded with pre-selection in 1996, winning despite a high profile campaign by No Aircraft Noise,"[1] and is still the sitting MP today.

[edit] Members

Member	Party	Term
Hon Fred Daly	ALP	1949-75
Tony Whitlam	ALP	1975-77
Hon Frank Stewart	ALP	1977-79
Hon Leo McLeay	ALP	1979-93^[1]
Hon Jeannette McHugh	ALP	1993-96
Anthony Albanese	ALP	1996-current^[2]