Division of Wills

Wills
Australian House of Representatives Division
Wills; Australian House of Representatives Division
	Division of Wills (green) in Victoria
Created	1949
MP	Peter Khalil
Party	Labor
Namesake	William Wills
Area	57 km2 (22.0 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Wills is an Australian Electoral Division of Victoria.

The division includes the northern Melbourne suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Fawkner, Glenroy, and Essendon Airport. It was named after William John Wills, of the Burke and Wills expedition.

Members

	Party	Term
Bill Bryson	Labor	1949–1955
Bill Bryson	Labor (Anti-Communist)	1955–1955
Gordon Bryant	Labor	1955–1980
Bob Hawke	Labor	1980–1992
Phil Cleary	Independent	1992–1996
Kelvin Thomson	Labor	1996–2016
Peter Khalil	Labor	2016–present

Wills has been one of the safest Labor seats in the country. It has been held by Labor except between the 1992 by-election and the 1996 federal election. During this time it was held by independent Phil Cleary. The seat was held by Prime Minister Bob Hawke.

The 1992 by-election is remarkable for a number of reasons. It was caused by Bob Hawke's retirement from parliament. A record 22 people stood for election. It was won by an independent, Phil Cleary. However he was on unpaid leave from the state education system and the Australian Constitution forbids people employed by the government from standing for election. No replacement by-election was held as the court decision which threw out the results was made shortly before a general election was due.

Election results

2022 Australian federal election: Wills^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Peter Khalil	35,449	38.87	−5.39
	Greens	Sarah Jefford	25,793	28.28	+2.01
	Liberal	Tom Wright	15,771	17.29	−0.76
	United Australia	Irene Zivkovic	3,352	3.68	+0.54
	Socialist Alliance	Sue Bolton	3,096	3.39	+3.39
	Victorian Socialists	Emma Black	2,714	2.98	−1.53
	One Nation	Jill Tindal	2,554	2.80	+2.80
	Animal Justice	Leah Horsfall	1,680	1.84	−1.92
	Australian Federation	Sam Sergi	789	0.87	+0.87
Total formal votes			91,198	94.95	−0.77
Informal votes			4,855	5.05	+0.77
Turnout			96,053	88.61	−2.55
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Peter Khalil	69,104	75.77	+0.06
	Liberal	Tom Wright	22,094	24.23	−0.06
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Labor	Peter Khalil	53,415	58.57	+0.10
	Greens	Sarah Jefford	37,783	41.43	−0.10
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.10

Division Of Wills Media

Location of the Australian federal electoral division of Wills (dark green) in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria as of the 2022 Australian federal election. Incorporates or developed using Administrative Boundaries © Geoscape Australia Limited licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0)
Location of the federal electoral division (dark green) of the Australian House of Representatives in the Melbourne metropolitan area of Victoria as of the 2025 Australian federal election. Divisions shapefile from Australian Statistical Geography Standard
William Wills, the division's namesake
A polling place in Wills at the 2025 federal election, with material for Labor's Peter Khalil and the Greens' Samantha Ratnam
Bill Bryson
Gordon Bryant 1973 (cropped)
Portrait of PM Robert James Lee Hawke. Date unknown.
Phil Cleary speaking at the post-game ceremony of the 2024 VFL round 13 game between Coburg and the Northern Bullants at Coburg City Oval
Kelvin Thomson
Peter Khalil at 2025 Wills results declaration (cropped)