Division of Groom

Groom Australian House of Representatives Division
Interactive map of boundaries
Created	1984
MP	Garth Hamilton
Party	Liberal National
Namesake	Sir Littleton Groom
Electors	110,932 (2022)
Area	5,586 km2 (2,156.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

The Division of Groom is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland.

Groom is an agricultural electorate located on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland. It includes the regional city of Toowoomba and rural communities to the west and south.

The current MP is Garth Hamilton, a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

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.

History

Sir Littleton Groom, the division's namesake

The division was created in 1984 as essentially a reconfigured version of the old Division of Darling Downs, which had existed since Federation. It is named in honour of Sir Littleton Groom, who represented Darling Downs with only one short break from 1901 to 1936 and served as Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives.

It is located in the rural areas west of Brisbane and is centred on the city of Toowoomba, Australia's second largest inland city. Other centres include Oakey and Pittsworth.

The seat has never elected a Labor member in either of its incarnations as Darling Downs or Groom. The Coalition's hold on the seat has only been even remotely threatened once in its present incarnation; in 2007, the Liberals were held to 58.2 percent of the two-party vote despite winning enough primary votes to retain the seat outright. This is the only time that the Coalition has won less than 62 percent of the two-party vote in the seat's present incarnation. Toowoomba itself (particularly, the northern suburbs) has pockets of Labor support and was represented by Labor at state level as late as 2012. However, it is nowhere near enough to overcome the conservative bent of the rural areas.

Groom's electors are socially conservative. In 2017, it was one of only three electorates in Queensland to vote against the Marriage Survey.

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Tom McVeigh (1930–)	Nationals	1 December 1984 – 29 February 1988	Previously held the Division of Darling Downs. Resigned to retire from politics. Son is John McVeigh
		Bill Taylor (1938–)	Liberal	9 April 1988 – 31 August 1998	Retired
		Ian Macfarlane (1955–)		3 October 1998 – 19 July 2010	Served as minister under Howard and Abbott. Retired
			Liberal National	19 July 2010 – 9 May 2016
		John McVeigh (1965–)		2 July 2016 – 18 September 2020	Previously held the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Toowoomba South. Served as minister under Turnbull. Resigned to retire from politics. Father is Tom McVeigh
		Garth Hamilton (1979–)		28 November 2020 – present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Groom

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Australian federal election in Queensland § Groom.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election: Groom

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal National	Garth Hamilton	41,971	43.72	−9.62
	Labor	Gen Allpass	17,985	18.73	+0.07
	One Nation	Grant Abraham	9,181	9.56	−3.53
	Independent	Suzie Holt	7,932	8.26	+8.26
	Independent	Kirstie Smolenski	6,858	7.14	+7.14
	Greens	Mickey Berry	5,616	5.85	−2.11
	United Australia	Melissa Bannister	4,922	5.13	+1.17
	Federation	Ryan Otto	1,539	1.60	+1.60
Total formal votes			96,004	95.28	−1.52
Informal votes			4,758	4.72	+1.52
Turnout			100,762	90.88	−2.17
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Liberal National	Garth Hamilton	61,610	64.17	−6.31
	Labor	Gen Allpass	34,394	35.83	+6.31
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Liberal National	Garth Hamilton	54,612	56.89	−13.60
	Independent	Suzie Holt	41,392	43.11	+43.11
	Liberal National hold

Primary vote results in Groom (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Liberal National

  Liberal

  National

  Labor

  Greens

  Family First

  Australian Democrats

  One Nation

  Palmer United/United Australia Party

  Sustainable Australia

  Liberal Democrats

  Nick Xenophon Team

  Confederate Action

  Independent

Two-candidate-preferred vote results in Groom

External links

• Division of Groom (Qld) — Australian Electoral Commission