Electoral district of Prahran

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. The electorate is the state’s smallest by area, covering a little under 11 km2 in the inner south-east of Melbourne. It includes the suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor, as well as parts of Southbank, St Kilda and St Kilda East.

Prahran
VictoriaLegislative Assembly
Location of Prahran (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
StateVictoria
Created1889
MPVacant
NamesakePrahran
Electors50,373 (2018)
Area11 km2 (4.2 sq mi)
DemographicInner metropolitan

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. In the 1980s and 1990s, the electorate became 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, even allowing for Lsbor's massive win that year. The seat has since become increasingly progressive, having been won by either Labor or the Greens in five out of the last six elections while the Liberal Party's primary vote has declined from slightly above the state average to significantly below the state average.

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 re-contested the 2014 election but lost to Sam Hibbins of the Greens. Along with the seat of Melbourne it was the first win for the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Hibbins increased his two-candidate-preferred margin to 7.5% at the 2018 election, but only narrowly defeated Labor by 262 votes in the 3-candidate-preferred count. At the 2022 election, a large swing to the Greens saw them take first place on primary votes before comfortably defeating the Liberal Party on a 2-candidate-preferred basis, retaining the seat for a third term with an increased margin of 12%.

List of members for Prahran

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Member Party Term
  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 2014–2024
  Independent 2024

Election results

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2022 Victorian state election: Prahran[2][3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Greens Sam Hibbins 14,286 36.4 +8.1
Liberal Matthew Lucas 12,198 31.1 −1.6
Labor Wesa Chau 10,421 26.6 −3.9
Animal Justice Alice Le Huray 1,263 3.2 +0.9
Family First Ronald Emilsen 626 1.6 +1.6
Independent Alan Menadue 449 1.1 +0.8
Total formal votes 39,243 97.0 +2.1
Informal votes 1,223 3.0 −2.1
Turnout 40,466 82.7 −1.6
Notional two-party-preferred count
Labor Wesa Chau 23,966 61.1 +2.4
Liberal Matthew Lucas 15,277 38.9 –2.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
Greens Sam Hibbins 24,334 62.0 +3.0
Liberal Matthew Lucas 14,909 38.0 −3.0
Greens hold Swing +3.0
Primary vote results in Prahran (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)
  Liberal
  Labor
  Greens
Two-candidate-preferred results in Prahran
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References

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  1. ^ "The Electoral Act Amendment Act 1888" (PDF). Australasian Legal Information Institute. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  2. ^ Green, Antony (11 January 2023). "VIC22 – 2-Party Preferred Results and Swings by District". Antony Green's Election Blog. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
  3. ^ VIC 2021 Final Redistribution, ABC News. [Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  4. ^ Prahran District results, Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 16 December 2022.
  • "Re-Member". Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 12 March 2014.