Electoral district of Bentleigh

The electoral district of Bentleigh is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It covers an area of 21 square kilometres (8.1 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
Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Bentleigh (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
StateVictoria
Created1967
MPNick Staikos
PartyLabor
Electors42,772 (2018)
Area21 km2 (8.1 sq mi)
DemographicMetropolitan
Coordinates37°55′S 145°03′E

Bentleigh has usually been seen as a key marginal seat, lying at the 'point of the pendulum' needed to change government. It is one of the more notable bellwether seats 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
Main article: Electoral results for the district of Bentleigh
2018 Victorian state election: Bentleigh[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Labor Nick Staikos 18,443 50.20 +11.60
Liberal Asher Judah 12,232 33.29 −12.59
Greens Sarah Dekiere 2,763 7.52 −3.05
Independent Oscar Lobo 752 2.05 +2.05
Animal Justice Naren Chellappah 709 1.93 +1.93
Justice Ellie Jean Sullivan 572 1.56 +1.56
Reason Dave Stott 452 1.23 −0.66
Democratic Labour Fi Fraser 412 1.12 +1.12
Sustainable Australia Hans Verzijl 312 0.85 +0.85
Independent George Mavroyeni 92 0.25 +0.25
Total formal votes 36,739 93.85 −0.91
Informal votes 2,408 6.15 +0.91
Turnout 39,147 91.52 −2.03
Two-party-preferred result
Labor Nick Staikos 22,811 61.92 +11.27
Liberal Asher Judah 14,031 38.08 −11.27
Labor hold Swing+11.27
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References
  1. "Bentleigh District profile". Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  2. State Election 2018: Bentleigh, VEC.


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