Division of Melbourne

Melbourne
Australian House of Representatives Division
Melbourne; Australian House of Representatives Division
	Division of Melbourne in Victoria, as of the 2022 federal election
Created	1901
MP	Adam Bandt
Party	Greens
Namesake	Melbourne
Electors	114,447 (2022)
Area	40 km2 (15.4 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner metropolitan

The Division of Melbourne is an Australian electoral division in the State of Victoria, represented since the 2010 election by Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens.

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first federal election. The Division of Melbourne encompasses the City of Melbourne and the suburbs of Abbotsford, Burnley, Carlton, Carlton North, Clifton Hill, Collingwood, Cremorne, Docklands, East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Fitzroy North, North Melbourne, Parkville, Princes Hill, Richmond, West Melbourne and parts of Brunswick East. The area has heavy and light engineering, extensive manufacturing, commercial and retail activities (including Melbourne markets and central business district), dockyards, clothing and footwear industries, warehousing and distributing of whitegoods, building and other general goods. This capital city electorate's northern boundary is formed by Maribyrnong Road, Ormond Road, Park Street, Sydney Road and Glenlyon Road between the Yarra River, Maribyrnong River and Merri Creek. The division also contains the main Parkville Campus of the University of Melbourne.

Melbourne has the highest proportion of Greens first party preferences relative to any other federal division. Melbourne also has a higher than average university education rate, with 44.8% of electors holding a bachelor's degree or above.^[1]

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.^[2]

History

Melbourne was held by the Australian Labor Party for almost all of its history. Labor first won the seat at a 1904 by-election, and held it for over a century, with former Opposition Leader Arthur Calwell the highest profile member. For most of the time from 1907 to 2004, it was one of Labor's safest seats. During this time, Labor's hold on the seat was only remotely threatened once, when Calwell saw his majority trimmed to 57.2 percent amidst the Coalition's landslide victory in 1966. This is still the closest that the conservative parties have come to winning the seat in over a century.

At the 2007 election, Melbourne became a marginal seat for the first time in a century, even as Labor won a decisive victory nationally. Greens candidate Adam Bandt taking second place on a two candidate preferred basis, leaving Labor with 54.71 percent of the vote. On a "traditional" two party preferred basis with the Liberals, Labor finished with 72.27, an increase of 1.13 percentage points.^[3]

At the 2010 election however, following the retirement of former member and Minister for Finance and Deregulation Lindsay Tanner, Labor lost Melbourne to the Greens on a large swing, with Bandt far outpolling the Liberals and securing victory over Labor candidate Cath Bowtell.^[4] Bandt retained his seat in 2013, 2016 and 2019, with an increase in his primary vote share on each occasion. In 2016 and 2019, he actually pushed Labor into third place.

In 2017, the division had the highest percentage of "Yes" responses in the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, with 83.7% of the electorate's respondents to the survey responding "Yes" in favour of same-sex marriage. Additionally, in the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum, the division had the highest percentage of "Yes" responses of any Australian division, with 78.04% of votes cast responding "Yes" in favour of the proposal.

Members

Member	Party	Term	Notes
Sir Malcolm McEacharn (1852–1910)	Protectionist	29 March 1901 – 10 March 1904	1903 election results declared void. Lost seat in subsequent by-election
William Maloney (1854–1940)	Labor	30 March 1904 – 27 August 1940	Previously held the Victorian Legislative Assembly seat of West Melbourne. Retired
Arthur Calwell (1896–1973)		21 September 1940 – 2 November 1972	Served as minister under Curtin, Forde and Chifley. Served as Opposition Leader from 1960 to 1967. Retired
Ted Innes (1925–2010)		2 December 1972 – 4 February 1983	Lost preselection and retired
Gerry Hand (1942–2023)		5 March 1983 – 8 February 1993	Served as minister under Hawke and Keating. Retired
Lindsay Tanner (1956–)		13 March 1993 – 19 July 2010	Served as minister under Rudd and Gillard. Retired
Adam Bandt (1972–)	Greens	21 August 2010 – present	Incumbent. Currently Leader of the Greens

Election results

2022 Australian federal election: Melbourne^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Greens	Adam Bandt	47,883	49.62	+1.58
	Labor	Keir Paterson	24,155	25.03	+3.91
	Liberal	James Damches	14,660	15.19	−6.01
	Victorian Socialists	Colleen Bolger	3,156	3.27	+3.27
	United Australia	Justin Borg	1,709	1.77	+0.60
	Liberal Democrats	Richard Peppard	1,596	1.65	+1.65
	Animal Justice	Bruce Poon	1,316	1.36	−0.68
	Independent	Scott Robson	1,094	1.13	+1.13
	One Nation	Walter Stragan	937	0.97	+0.97
Total formal votes			96,506	96.99	+0.01
Informal votes			2,993	3.01	−0.01
Turnout			99,499	86.98	−2.64
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Keir Paterson	75,191	77.91	+10.11
	Liberal	James Damches	21,315	22.09	−10.11
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Greens	Adam Bandt	58,050	60.15	−12.44
	Labor	Keir Paterson	38,456	39.85	+39.85
	Greens hold