Voting in the set of Page
There are 122,915 (2022) voters over 19,342sq km in the electorate of Page which is currently held by National Party member Kevin Hogan.
Mr Hogan won the federal seat from Labor's Janelle Saffin in 2013. Saffin is now the elected NSW lower house representative for the state seat of Lismore, which is within the Page electorate. Hogan’s margin has nearly halved since he was first elected in 2013.
The Page electorate has swung four times between the Nationals and Labor since the division was proclaimed at redistribution in 1984. The seat has been held primarily by the National Party since it was created in 1984 with Labor taking the seat in 1990, 1993, 2007 and 2010.
The Greens candidate is Dr Luke Robinson while conservative, right-wing group Family First is running Andrew Grady and the Australian Citizens Party is running Jennifer Baker. Labor is running Wendy Backhous.
The Page electorate covers a range of coastal towns from the northern suburbs of Coffs Harbour, Iluka, Evans Head and Wardell inland to Lismore, Nimbin, Kyogle, Bonalbo, and Grafton giving it a definite diversity of voters from the alternative to highly conservative.
Demographically, the seat offers something to both major parties. One one hand, the higher-than-average unemployment rate (7.9 per cent according to the last Census) and lower-than-average wages ($1,243/week for families) could lead to some disaffection with the current government.
On the other hand, the Nationals can still rely on a large conservative, rural voter base that could get them over the line once again.
