(centre) and
Andrew Giles (right) in Parliament house in 2014 From Makin's creation ahead of the
1984 election, the seat was always marginal and held by the party of government, often typical of mortgage belt seats. However, Zappia defeated
Liberal candidate
Bob Day at the 2007 election with a 57.7 percent two-party vote from an 8.6-point two-party swing as Labor won government, the largest two-party vote and swing of any party in Makin's history at the time, and was also the first time a Makin candidate won a majority of the primary vote. At the
2010 election, Zappia technically made it a safe Labor seat with a 62.2 percent two-party vote, again becoming the largest of any party in Makin's history. Zappia held the seat at the
2013 election with a reduced 55.1 percent two-party vote even as Labor lost government, albeit still the largest two-party vote, aside from 2010 and 2007, of any party in Makin's history. No longer a bellwether for the first time, Zappia became the first opposition member in the seat's history. In September 2023, Zappia joined a cross-party delegation of Australian MPs to Washington, D.C., to lobby the
U.S. Department of Justice to abandon its attempts to extradite Australian publisher
Julian Assange from the United Kingdom. The other members were
Alex Antic,
Barnaby Joyce,
Monique Ryan,
David Shoebridge, and
Peter Whish-Wilson. ==Personal life==