Division of Barton

For much of its history, Barton has been a marginal seat, held by the Australian Labor Party for most of the time after 1940, but won by the Liberals (or their predecessors) at "high-tide" elections.

A former minister in the Hawke and Keating ministries, Gary Punch, held the seat for Labor between 1983 and 1996.

Robert McClelland, Attorney-General in the Rudd and Gillard governments, held the seat for Labor between 1996 and 2013.

[3] After being found guilty of an unrelated murder in England in 1947, Ley was declared insane[4] and died in Broadmoor Asylum four months later.

[5] The division has always been based in the inner southern suburbs of Sydney, and currently includes the suburbs of Arncliffe, Banksia, Bardwell Park, Bardwell Valley, Bexley, Bexley North, Brighton-Le-Sands, Clemton Park, Earlwood, Kyeemagh, Rockdale, Tempe, Turrella, Undercliffe, and Wolli Creek; as well as parts of Belmore, Beverly Hills, Campsie, Canterbury, Carlton, Dulwich Hill, Hurlstone Park, Hurstville, Kingsgrove, Kogarah, Marrickville, and Penshurst.

Sir Edmund Barton , the division's namesake
Alluvial diagram for preference flows in the seat of Barton in the 2022 federal election . The winning candidate got over 50% of first preference votes, so this alluvial diagram is indicative only, and preference flows were not used to determine the final result. The preference flows were used to determine the two-candidate-preferred .