Electoral district of Prahran

Prahran
Victoria—Legislative Assembly

Location of Prahran (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
State Victoria
Created 1889
MP Sam Hibbins
Party Australian Greens
Electors 44,075 (2014)
Area 12 km2 (4.6 sq mi)
Demographic Inner metropolitan

Prahran is an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly in the Australian state of Victoria. It was created by the Electoral Act Amendment Act 1888,[1] taking effect at the 1889 elections. It is the state's smallest electorate of 12 km² (4.6 sq.ml) in the inner south-east of Melbourne, taking in the suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor, as well as parts of Balaclava, St Kilda, St Kilda East and Toorak (west of Orrong Rd). The electorate had a population of 54,141 at the 2001 census.

Prahran has tended to be a marginal seat throughout its existence, repeatedly changing between the Labor Party and its successive conservative rivals. It has not, however, been a bellwether seat, as the changes of party control have often not coincided with changes of government. Since the 1980s, the electorate has become gradually more conservative as a result of increasing gentrification in the inner suburbs, resulting in seventeen years of Liberal control from 1985 until 2002. This trend was broken in the 2002 election, which saw popular local member and shadow minister Leonie Burke defeated by Labor rising star Tony Lupton on an unexpectedly large swing.

The seat was strongly targeted by the Liberal Party during the 2006 election, with high-profile barrister Clem Newton-Brown narrowly preselected as their candidate after a tight contest. Though Newton-Brown ran a thorough campaign, he was not successful. Following his success in the 2006 election, Tony Lupton was promoted to the position of Parliamentary Secretary for Industry and Innovation. Newton-Brown stood again at the 2010 election and was this time successful. He contested the 2014 election but lost to Sam Hibbins of the Greens who came third on primary votes but was able to overtake Labor with the help of Animal Justice Party preferences after which the vast bulk of Labor preferences flowed to the Greens enabling Hibbins to clinch the seat from Newton-Brown. Along with the seat of Melbourne it was the first win for the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

List of members for Prahran

MemberPartyTerm
  Edward Dixon Unaligned 1889–1894
  Frederick Gray Labor 1894–1900
  Donald Mackinnon Liberal 1900–1920
  Alexander Parker Labor 1920–1921
  Richard Fetherston Nationalist 1921–1924
  Arthur Jackson Labor 1924–1932
  John Ellis United Australia 1932–1944
  Liberal 1944–1945
  Bill Quirk Labor 1945–1948
  Frank Crean Labor 1949–1951
  Robert Pettiona Labor 1951–1955
  Sam Loxton Liberal 1955–1979
  Bob Miller Labor 1979–1985
  Don Hayward Liberal 1985–1996
  Leonie Burke Liberal 1996–2002
  Tony Lupton Labor 2002–2010
  Clem Newton-Brown Liberal 2010–2014
  Sam Hibbins Greens 2014–present

2014 election results

Victorian state election, 2014: Prahran[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Clem Newton-Brown 16,582 44.8 −2.8
Labor Neil Pharaoh 9,586 25.9 −1.5
Greens Sam Hibbins 9,160 24.8 +5.0
Animal Justice Eleonora Gullone 837 2.3 +2.3
Family First Alan Walker 282 0.8 +0.2
Independent Jason Simon Goldsmith 247 0.7 +0.7
Independent Steve Stefanopoulos 227 0.6 +0.6
Independent Alan Maxwell Menadue 82 0.2 +0.2
Total formal votes 37,003 94.9 −1.9
Informal votes 1,991 5.1 +1.9
Turnout 38,994 88.5 +4.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
Greens Sam Hibbins 18,640 50.4 +50.4
Liberal Clem Newton-Brown 18,363 49.6 −5.1
Greens gain from Liberal Swing N/A

External links

References

  1. ↑ "The Electoral Act Amendment Act 1888" (PDF). Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  2. ↑ State Election 2014: Prahran District, VEC.
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