Division of Hunter

The Division of Hunter is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. The division was named after Captain John Hunter, the second Governor of New South Wales.The division is located in northern rural New South Wales, and covers about 36 percent of the Hunter Region, including the towns of Singleton, Muswellbrook, Cessnock and Denman. The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first federal election.The Member for the Division of Hunter, since the 1996 federal election, is Joel Fitzgibbon, a member of the Australian Labor Party.2015 proposed abolitionIn 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the federation seat of Hunter. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales was to lose a seat while Western Australia was to gain an extra seat. Electors in the north of Hunter were to join New England. The roughly 40 percent remainder were to become part of Paterson, with the Liberal margin calculated to be notionally reduced from 9.8 percent to just 0.5 percent as a result. Since the Commission's guidelines require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible, the commission proposed renaming Charlton to Hunter.