# Electoral district of Gosford

Gosford is an electoral district of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in Australia. The electorate covers the southern and western parts of the Central Coast Council in the Central Coast region, including central Gosford and Woy Woy.
It is represented by Liesl Tesch of the Labor Party, elected at the 2017 by-election.

## History

The electorate was created in 1950. At the redistribution prior to the 2007 election much of the district of Gosford, then held by Chris Hartcher for the Liberal Party, became part of the district of Terrigal while Gosford absorbed most of the former district of Peats, then held by Marie Andrews for the Labor Party. Antony Green describes the redistribution as effectively being that Gosford was renamed Terrigal while Peats was renamed Gosford.

## Geography

On its current boundaries, Gosford includes the suburbs of Bar Point, Blackwall, Booker Bay, Calga, Central Mangrove, Cheero Point, Cogra Bay, Ettalong Beach, Glenworth Valley, Gosford, Greengrove, Horsfield Bay, Kariong, Koolewong Little Wobby, Lower Mangrove, Mangrove Creek, Mangrove Mountain, Marlow, Mooney Mooney, Mooney Mooney Creek, Mount White, Narara, Patonga, Pearl Beach, Peats Ridge, Phegans Bay, Point Clare, Point Frederick, Somersby, Spencer, Tascott, Ten Mile Hollow, Umina Beach, Upper Mangrove, West Gosford, Wondabyne, Woy Woy, Woy Woy Bay and parts of East Gosford and North Gosford.

## Demographics

The percentage of people in Gosford who were born overseas was 15% which is slightly lower than the national average at 22.2% and the percentage of people who have Australian citizenship is only slightly higher than the national average of 86.1% at 88.4%. As for languages spoken at home English only was the most common language spoken by 90.4% of the population which is substantially higher than national average at 78.5%. Italian was second with 0.4%, while no other language was spoken by more than 0.3% of the total population. Anglicanism was the most common religion at 28.2%, followed by Catholicism at 26.6%, No Religion with 14.9% and Uniting Church at 5.6%. Median incomes for the population aged 15 years and over was only slightly lower in both weekly individual income and weekly household income but slightly higher in the weekly family income category.

## Members for Gosford

| Member | Party | Period |
| Harold Jackson | Liberal | 1950–1965 |
| Ted Humphries | Liberal | 1965–1971 |
| Keith O'Connell | Labor | 1971–1973 |
| Malcolm Brooks | Liberal | 1973–1976 |
| Brian McGowan | Labor | 1976–1988 |
| Chris Hartcher | Liberal | 1988–2007 |
| Marie Andrews | Labor | 2007–2011 |
| Chris Holstein | Liberal | 2011–2015 |
| Kathy Smith | Labor | 2015–2017 |
| Liesl Tesch | Labor | 2017–present |

## Election results

2023 New South Wales state election: Gosford :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| | Labor | Liesl Tesch | 24,703 | 50.4 | +6.3 |
| | Liberal | Dee Bocking | 13,881 | 28.3 | −7.8 |
| | Greens | Hilary van Haren | 4,553 | 9.3 | +0.2 |
| | Shooters, Fishers, Farmers | Larry Freeman | 2,071 | 4.2 | −0.5 |
| | Independent | Lisa Bellamy | 1,668 | 3.4 | +3.4 |
| | Animal Justice | Emily McCallum | 1,336 | 2.7 | −0.7 |
| | Sustainable Australia | Ineka Soetens | 806 | 1.6 | −0.8 |
| Total formal votes | Total formal votes | Total formal votes | 49,018 | 97.0 | +0.5 |
| Informal votes | Informal votes | Informal votes | 1,524 | 3.0 | −0.5 |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 50,542 | 86.9 | −2.0 |
| Two-party-preferred result ||||||
| | Labor | Liesl Tesch | 29,023 | 65.4 | +8.3 |
| | Liberal | Dee Bocking | 15,364 | 34.6 | −8.3 |
| | Labor hold | Labor hold | Swing | +8.3 | |