Groom Australian House of Representatives Division
Map Interactive map of boundaries
Created	1984
MP	Garth Hamilton
Party	Liberal National
Namesake	Sir Littleton Groom
Electors	110,932 (2022)
Area	5,586 km2 (2,156.8 sq mi)
Demographic	Provincial

The Division of Groom is an Australian Electoral Division in Queensland.

Groom is an agricultural electorate located on the Darling Downs in southern Queensland. It includes the regional city of Toowoomba and rural communities to the west and south.^[1]

The current MP is Garth Hamilton, a member of the Liberal National Party of Queensland.

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[2]

History

The division was created in 1984 as essentially a reconfigured version of the old Division of Darling Downs, which had existed since Federation. It is named in honour of Sir Littleton Groom, who represented Darling Downs with only one short break from 1901 to 1936 and served as Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives.

It is located in the rural areas west of Brisbane and is centred on the city of Toowoomba, Australia's second largest inland city. Other centres include Oakey and Pittsworth.

The seat has never elected a Labor member in either of its incarnations as Darling Downs or Groom. While Toowoomba itself (particularly, the northern suburbs) occasionally votes for Labor, it is nowhere near enough to overcome the conservative bent of the rural areas.

Groom's electors are socially conservative. In 2017, it was one of only three electorates in Queensland to vote against the Marriage Survey.

2020 Groom by-election

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Tom McVeigh (1930–)	Nationals	1 December 1984 – 29 February 1988	Previously held the Division of Darling Downs. Resigned to retire from politics. Son is John McVeigh
		Bill Taylor (1938–)	Liberal	9 April 1988 – 31 August 1998	Retired
		Ian Macfarlane (1955–)	Liberal	3 October 1998 – 19 July 2010	Served as minister under Howard and Abbott. Retired
			Liberal National	19 July 2010 – 9 May 2016
		John McVeigh (1965–)	Liberal National	2 July 2016 – 18 September 2020	Previously held the Legislative Assembly of Queensland seat of Toowoomba South. Served as minister under Turnbull. Resigned to retire from politics. Father is Tom McVeigh
		Garth Hamilton (1979–)	Liberal National	28 November 2020 – present	Incumbent

Election results

  Liberal

  National