Division of Winston

The Division of Winston is a Craftian federal division in the state of Wintaro. It was created in 1970 and named after political activist Francis Winston (1902–1961). The division was first contested in the 1971 general election. It covers the city of Novena and its suburbs. It is one of the few remaining divisions to have been contested before independence and the first federal election in 1986.

The sitting member, since the 2039 by-election, is Bruce Kerry, a member of the Craftian Conservative Party.

History
The Division of Winston originally covered the south-eastern corner of the state and was around an eighth of the total area of Wintaro, but successive redistributions have cut back on the boundaries significantly since its original form, due to population growth and demographic changes. Today, the seat covers little more than the city of Novena and its suburban sprawl.

The division has always been fairly safe for centre-right parties. Its prominent members include former Prime Minister Steve Bergensten, who held the seat between 1981 and 1995 (he was no longer the member for the seat when he became Prime Minister in 2002). Bergensten switched party affiliation thrice during his tenure as MP for Winston, first to the Craftian Democrats from the National Party of Craftia in 1986, then to the Craftia Liberty Party in 1989. He then founded the Liberal Party of Craftia in 1995. He was forced to contest another seat (Notchropolis) in 1995 due to a redistribution making the seat a notionally fairly safe centre-right seat. However, the division was held by the CLP until 1998 and again from 2005 to 2013.

The seat is now one of the Conservative Party's safest seats, currently held on a margin of 24.79%. Numerous redistributions have removed the left-leaning parts of the electorate such as the rural outskirts of Novena. As a whole, the state of Wintaro is noticeably more right-leaning than the rest of the country, and the city of Novena is particularly conservative even by Wintaro standards. The Conservatives have held the seat for all but three years since 2013, and without interruption since 2022. Its current member, Bruce Kerry, is the current Father of the Craftian House of Representatives, having held the seat for more than 34 years.