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 encompasses much of the Hunter Region, including the towns of Singleton, Maitland, 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. On 16 October 2015 it was announced that the Division is to be abolished with the redistribution in New South Wales.
2015 abolition
In 2015 the Australian Electoral Commission announced plans to abolish the federation seat of Hunter. Electors in the north of Hunter will join New England. The roughly 40 percent remainder will become part of Paterson, where the Liberal margin is set 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. Due to changing populations, overall New South Wales loses a seat while Western Australia gets an extra seat.