The Federal seat of Ballarat is one of the 65 original seats of the House of Representatives. The seat has been redistributed since the last election picking up areas of parts of Golden Plains Shire and losing Ballan and Bacchus Marsh. The seat is centred on the City of Ballarat. It reaches North and East to Clunes, Creswick and Daylesford, West to Skipton and South to Cressy.

The seat has been held by both the Liberal and Labor Parties, changing hands regularly. But it has become a relatively solid Labor seat since Catherine King won the seat in  2001. She has been re-elected six times.

At the last election King won the two party preferred vote: 57.3 percent to 42.6 percent for the Liberal Party.  The Greens had 8.8 percent of the primary vote. The United Australia Party 4.6 percent and the Animal Justice Party 4.3 percent.

This year there are nine candidates. Five of them have reasonably easy to find information and websites. They are linked to the names of the candidates below. The remaining four candidates provide little public information.

Catherine King

The Australian Labor Party has selected Catherine King as its candidate for the seat of Ballarat. King has represented Ballarat since 2001 when she first won the seat. She is currently the shadow minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development.

Ben Green

The Liberal Party has selected Ben Green as its candidate for the seat of Ballarat. Green is a Melbourne based lawyer specialising in defamation, the review of government decisions, construction, commercial and employment law. He has links to Sebastopol and Talbot.

John Barnes

The Australian Greens have selected John Barnes as their candidate for the seat of Ballarat. Barnes has a long history of involvement in local politics and served on the Ballarat City Council, including as Mayor.

Terri Pryse-Smith

The United Australia Party has selected Terri Pryse-Smith as its candidate for Ballarat. Pryse-Smith is a former agricultural science business person and she has also worked as a language teacher.

Julia McGrath

Julia McGrath is the Liberal Democrat candidate for the seat of Ballarat. McGrath grew up in Creswick and has worked in legal practice.

Rosalie Taxis

One Nation has selected Rosalie Taxis as its candidate for the seat of Ballarat. There is no information about her on the One Nation website. She was the One Nation candidate for South Brisbane at the 2020 Queensland state election.

Chris Kelly

Chris Kelly is the Great Australian Party candidate for the seat of Ballarat. He is a Ballarat resident. The Great Australian Party is associated with Rod Culleton, a former One Nation Senator for Western Australia

Kerryn Sedgman

Kerryn Sedgman is the Australian Federation Party candidate for the seat of Ballarat. Sedgman is a Natural Health Practitioner. The Australian Federation Party was formerly the Country Alliance and the Australian Country Party.

Alex Graham

Alex Graham is an independent candidate for the seat of Ballarat. He has a background in the building, mining and oil exploration sector. He is the author of Spiritual Busyness.

Voting information is available here.