Wagga Wagga was created in 1894. In 1920, Wagga Wagga, Albury and Corowa was absorbed into Murray and elected three members under proportional representation. When proportional representation was replaced by single-member electorates in 1927, Wagga Wagga was recreated, with Matthew Kilpatrick, the Country Party candidate, winning the October election. According to the Wagga Daily Advertiser, it was a decisive vote against the continuance of the Labor government led by Jack Lang.[2]
Labor regained the seat in its 1941 landslide, holding it until the Liberals took it back in 1957. It remained safely Liberal for most of the last half-century, despite being located in the midst of an area considered Country/ National heartland. This tradition was broken in 2018, when longtime Liberal member Daryl Maguire was forced out of politics due to a corruption scandal. At the ensuring by-election, the Liberal primary vote almost halved, allowing independent Joe McGirr to take the seat on 59.6 percent of the two-candidate vote. Although Labor was knocked down to third place on the primary vote, the swing against the Liberals was large enough to make Wagga Wagga a notional Labor seat in a "traditional" two-party matchup with the Liberals.
McGirr retained the seat with an increased majority at the 2019 state election, with the Liberals standing down in favour of the Nationals. Unlike the preceding by-election, the National candidate won the notional "traditional" two-party matchup with Labor.
