Bentleigh
Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Bentleigh (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
StateVictoria
Created1967
MPNick Staikos
PartyLabor
NamesakeSuburb of Bentleigh
Electors51,415 (2022)
Area25 km2 (9.7 sq mi)
DemographicMetropolitan
Coordinates37°55′S 145°03′E / 37.917°S 145.050°E / -37.917; 145.050

The electoral district of Bentleigh is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers an area of 25 square kilometres (9.7 sq mi) in southern Melbourne, including the suburbs of Bentleigh, Hampton East, McKinnon, and Moorabbin, and parts of Bentleigh East, Brighton East and Ormond. It also includes the Moorabbin campus of the Monash Medical Centre. It lies within the Southern Metropolitan Region of the upper house, the Legislative Council.[1]

Bentleigh has usually been seen as a key marginal seat, lying at the 'point of the pendulum' needed to change government. It is considered a bellwether seat in Victoria, having elected a member of the governing party in all but two elections of its existence.

It was created in 1967 as a fairly safe Liberal seat during the height of the Victorian Liberals' popularity. It remained in Liberal hands until 1979 where the Liberals nearly lost their majority for the first time in just under three decades. For most of the time since then, it has been a marginal seat, and is part of the belt of marginal seats in eastern Melbourne that usually decide elections in Victoria.

Labor then held the seat until the Kennett landslide of 1992. Following this, the seat was narrowly held by Inga Peulich until she was tipped out of office by Rob Hudson in the 2002 election. In the 2010 election the seat returned to the Liberals with Elizabeth Miller narrowly defeating Hudson. Bentleigh was actually the last seat to be decided, and Miller's victory allowed the Coalition to form government by one seat. In turn, Miller was ousted by Labor candidate Nick Staikos at the 2014 election. Staikos picked up a hefty swing of over 11 percent in Labor's landslide victory of 2018 and now sits on a majority of 61.9 percent, easily the strongest result for Labor in the seat's history.

Members for Bentleigh

MemberPartyTerm
  Bob Suggett Liberal 1967–1979
  Gordon Hockley Labor 1979–1988
  Ann Barker Labor 1988–1992
  Inga Peulich Liberal 1992–2002
  Rob Hudson Labor 2002–2010
  Elizabeth Miller Liberal 2010–2014
  Nick Staikos Labor 2014–present

Election results

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Bentleigh.[edit]
2022 Victorian state election: Bentleigh[2][3][4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labor Nick Staikos 20,656 45.8 −3.9
Liberal Debbie Taylor-Haynes 16,401 36.3 +3.0
Greens Alana Galli-McRostie 4,845 10.7 +2.5
Family First Paul Ryan 1,331 2.9 +2.9
Animal Justice David Harris 1,098 2.4 +0.7
Ind. (Fusion)[5] Simon Gnieslaw 789 1.7 +1.7
Total formal votes 45,120 97.0 +3.2
Informal votes 1,408 3.0 −3.2
Turnout 46,528 90.5 −0.5
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Nick Staikos 26,153 58.0 −3.4
Liberal Debbie Taylor-Haynes 18,972 42.0 +3.4
Labor hold Swing−3.4
Two-party-preferred vote results in Bentleigh

References

  1. ↑ "Bentleigh District profile". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 6 December 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. ↑ Bentleigh District results, Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
  5. ↑ Fusion Party Victoria ... are endorsing these great independent candidates


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