Wollongong has voted Labor at every federal election since 2004, and the Gold Coast's three seats Coalition every time. Which seats never change, and which keep changing.

There have been eight federal elections since 2004. Of the 150 seats in today's House of Representatives, 143 existed through all eight of them, some under a new name. 73 of those 143 were won by the same side every time: 43 by Labor and 30 by the Coalition.

A further 34 changed hands once. The other 36 changed hands at least twice.

Where the safe seats are

We matched every suburb to its current federal seat and counted residents at the 2021 Census. Whether a resident's safe seat is Labor's or the Coalition's depends largely on where they live:

Residents living in a seat...	Capital cities	Regional Australia
Labor has won at all eight elections	35.2%	17.9%
the Coalition has won at all eight elections	7.7%	41.6%
that changed hands at least once	51.7%	36.6%
created since 2004	5.4%	4.0%

In the capitals, Labor's safe seats outnumber the Coalition's by more than four to one, measured by residents (35.2% against 7.7%). In regional Australia the Coalition's lead is more than two to one (41.6% against 17.9%).

Regional cities that never change

Some regional cities have voted the same way at every one of the eight elections in the seats that cover most of their residents:

City	Seats	Won by
Wollongong	Cunningham, Whitlam	Labor, all eight
Ballarat	Ballarat	Labor, all eight
Bendigo	Bendigo	Labor, all eight
Gold Coast (75% of residents)	Fadden, Moncrieff, McPherson	Coalition, all eight
Toowoomba	Groom	Coalition, all eight
Wagga Wagga	Riverina	Coalition (Nationals), all eight
Bundaberg	Hinkler	Coalition, all eight
Busselton	Forrest	Coalition (Liberal), all eight

The Gold Coast's other large seat, Richmond, covers Tweed Heads and about 11% of the Gold Coast's residents, and has been Labor every time.

Newcastle is almost in the Labor group. Three of its four seats (Newcastle, Shortland and Hunter) have been Labor every time. Paterson, which covers about a fifth of the city's residents, went from Liberal to Labor in 2016.

Geelong is split. Corio, with 56% of Geelong's residents, has been Labor every time. Corangamite, with the other 44%, changed hands three times before settling with Labor from 2019.

The seats that swing

Two Tasmanian seats have changed hands more often than any other:

Seat	2004	2007	2010	2013	2016	2019	2022	2025
Bass (Launceston)	Liberal	Labor	Labor	Liberal	Labor	Liberal	Liberal	Labor
Braddon (Burnie, Devonport)	Liberal	Labor	Labor	Liberal	Labor	Liberal	Liberal	Labor

That is five changes each in eight elections. Bass covers 88.5% of Launceston's residents; Braddon covers all of Burnie. Lindsay in western Sydney and Longman north of Brisbane changed hands four times each.

The seat that picked every government

Robertson, on the NSW Central Coast, went with the side that formed government at all eight elections. It was Liberal in 2004, Labor in 2007 and 2010, Liberal from 2013 to 2019, and Labor in 2022 and 2025. No other seat matched the government every time.

Eden-Monaro went with the government at every election from 2004 to 2013 and broke the pattern in 2016, when it elected a Labor member while the Coalition was returned to government.

The safest seats

The two-party-preferred vote compares Labor with the Coalition in every seat, whoever won. By that measure, Labor's vote in Cooper, in Melbourne's inner north, never fell below 70.98% at any of the eight elections. Grayndler, in Sydney's inner west, never fell below 70.34%.

At the other end, Labor's two-party vote in Mallee, in north-west Victoria, never rose above 33.77%, and in Maranoa, in south-west Queensland, never above 35.56%.

A seat held every time can still be won narrowly. Richmond, which covers most of Ballina, has been Labor at all eight elections, but its lowest two-party result was 50.19%. Bowman, in Brisbane's bayside, has been Coalition every time, and Labor's best result there was 49.96%.

The seats that left both sides

Seven seats the Coalition won at every election from 2004 to 2019 were won by an independent or the Greens in 2022 or 2025: Bradfield, Mackellar and Wentworth in Sydney, Kooyong and Goldstein in Melbourne, Curtin in Perth, and Ryan in Brisbane. Goldstein returned to the Liberals in 2025; the other six were not held by the Coalition after 2025.

Younger seats lean Labor, mostly in the cities

We sorted all 150 seats by the median age of their residents and split them into five groups of 30. Labor's two-party vote in 2025 fell as the seats got older:

Median age of the seat's residents	Labor two-party vote, average	Seats where Labor led on two-party vote
32.4 to 35.6 (youngest)	62.6%	27 of 30
35.6 to 38.4	64.2%	28 of 30
38.4 to 40.8	52.5%	18 of 30
40.9 to 42.8	52.3%	19 of 30
42.9 to 51.6 (oldest)	45.5%	8 of 30

The seats Labor has won at all eight elections have an average median age of 37.3. The seats the Coalition has won every time average 43.0. The youngest seat is Melbourne (32.4), the oldest Lyne on the NSW mid-north coast (51.6).

The pattern is strong among the 96 capital-city seats and weak among the 54 regional ones. Age moves with other things that also differ between seats, such as income, housing and distance from a city, so this shows which seats lean which way, not why. It describes seats, not how people of any age vote.

How we counted

• Results are the Australian Electoral Commission's members elected and two-party-preferred vote for each seat at the 2004, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025 federal elections.
• A seat is followed by its name. Where the AEC renamed a seat (Denison to Clark, Batman to Cooper, Melbourne Ports to Macnamara, and seven others), the old and new names are treated as one seat. Seat boundaries are redrawn between elections, so a seat of the same name does not cover exactly the same ground each time.
• The Liberal, National, Liberal National and Country Liberal parties are counted together as the Coalition. A seat that passed between the Liberals and the Nationals has not changed sides.
• Bob Katter held Kennedy throughout, as an independent until 2010 and for his own party from 2013; it is counted as changing hands once.
• Residents are 2021 Census counts for each suburb, matched to the seat its suburb falls in today. "Capital cities" are the eight capitals' urban areas as the ABS defines them; everything else is "regional".
• Median ages are estimated from the 2021 Census age bands of every suburb in the seat, summed. A seat counts as a capital-city seat when most of its residents live in a capital's urban area.

Every suburb page on SuburbScan shows its federal seat, its member and the last three results.