Division of Kooyong

Kooyong Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Kooyong (green) in Victoria
Created	1901
MP	Josh Frydenberg
Party	Liberal
Namesake	Kooyong, Victoria
Electors	97,125 (2013)
Area	52 km^2 (20.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Kooyong is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. The Division of Kooyong is located in Melbourne's eastern suburbs. It covers an area of approximately 52 sq km stretching from Kew and Hawthorn in the west to Balwyn and Canterbury in the east, and from Balwyn North in the north to Hawthorn East and Camberwell in the south. Kooyong suburbs include Balwyn, Balwyn North, Camberwell, Canterbury, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, Kew, Kew East and Surrey Hills (part). It is named after the suburb of Kooyong, on which it was originally based. However, Kooyong has not been in its namesake electorate for some time, being instead in neighboring Higgins. Nonetheless, the seat has retained the name of Kooyong, primarily because the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines on electoral redistributions require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible.^[1]

Kooyong has been held by the Liberal Party of Australia and its predecessors for its entire existence. It is one of two original electorates in Victoria to have never been won by the Australian Labor Party, the other being Gippsland. For decades, it has been one of the safest Coalition seats in metropolitan Australia; Labor presently needs an 11-point swing to win it.

The seat's best-known member was Sir Robert Menzies, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia. From 1922 to 1994, it was held by only three members, all of whom went on to lead the non-Labor forces in Parliament--former Opposition Leader and future Chief Justice John Latham, Menzies, and former Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.

In the 1990 election, comedian Tim Ferguson of the Doug Anthony All Stars stood as an independent candidate for Kooyong against Peacock,^[2] gaining 3.7% of the vote.^[3]

Peacock's successor, high-profile Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou, saw off a challenge from Josh Frydenberg for Liberal Party preselection in April 2006. On 22 November 2008, Georgiou announced his retirement at the next federal election.^[4] Frydenberg won preselection as the Liberal Party's candidate for the seat for the 2010 election, and won despite a small swing against him.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	William Knox	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1901–1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909–1910
	Sir Robert Best	Commonwealth Liberal	1910–1917
		Nationalist	1917–1922
	John Latham	Liberal Union	1922–1925
		Nationalist	1925–1931
		United Australia	1931–1934
	(Sir) Robert Menzies	United Australia	1934–1944
		Liberal	1944–1966
	Andrew Peacock	Liberal	1966–1994
	Petro Georgiou	Liberal	1994–2010
	Josh Frydenberg	Liberal	2010–present

Election results

Australian federal election, 2013: Kooyong
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Josh Frydenberg	48,802	55.69	+3.20
	Labor	John Kennedy	19,655	22.43	−5.12
	Greens	Helen McLeod	14,526	16.58	−1.76
	Independent	Tiffany Harrison	1,464	1.67	+1.67
	Palmer United	Luke McNamara	1,406	1.60	+1.60
	Family First	Jaxon Calder	825	0.94	−0.60
	Independent	Angelina Zubac	621	0.71	+0.71
	Rise Up Australia	Tim Kriedemann	327	0.37	+0.37
Total formal votes			87,626	96.61	−0.61
Informal votes			3,073	3.39	+0.61
Turnout			90,699	93.38	−0.19
Two-party-preferred result
	Liberal	Josh Frydenberg	53,504	61.06	+3.61
	Labor	John Kennedy	34,122	38.94	−3.61
	Liberal hold		Swing	+3.61

References

1. "Guidelines for naming divisions". Australian Electoral Commission. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
2. Vote 1 the blonde chick from Moe - Opinion - www.theage.com.au
3. Results for Kooyong
4. The Age Online (2008). Georgiou, the party conscience, to quit. Retrieved 22 November 2008.

External links

• Division of Kooyong - Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 37°48′43″S 145°03′40″E / 37.812°S 145.061°E