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 km^2 (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

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–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

• District profile from the Victorian Electoral Commission

References

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

• "Re-Member". Parliament of Victoria. Retrieved 12 March 2014.