Electoral district of Prahran

Prahran Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Prahran (dark green) in Greater Melbourne
State	Victoria
Created	1889
MP	Vacant
Namesake	Prahran
Electors	50,373 (2018)
Area	11 km2 (4.2 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, taking effect at the 1889 elections. The electorate is the state’s smallest by area, covering a little under 11 km² in the inner south-east of Melbourne. It includes the suburbs of South Yarra, Prahran and Windsor, as well as parts of Southbank, St Kilda and St Kilda East.

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. In the 1980s and 1990s, the electorate became 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, even allowing for Labor's massive win that year. The seat has since become increasingly progressive, having been won by either Labor or the Greens in five out of the last six elections while the Liberal Party's primary vote has declined from slightly above the state average to significantly below the state average.

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 re-contested the 2014 election but lost to Sam Hibbins of the Greens. Along with the seat of Melbourne it was the first win for the Greens in the Victorian Legislative Assembly.

Hibbins increased his two-candidate-preferred margin to 7.5% at the 2018 election, but only narrowly defeated Labor by 262 votes in the 3-candidate-preferred count. At the 2022 election, a large swing to the Greens saw them take first place on primary votes before comfortably defeating the Liberal Party on a 2-candidate-preferred basis, retaining the seat for a third term with an increased margin of 12%.

Members for Prahran

Image		Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Edward Dixon (1833–1905)	Independent	1 April 1889 – 1 September 1894
		Frederick Gray (1853–1933)	Labour	1 October 1894 – 1 October 1900
		Donald Mackinnon (1859–1932)	Liberal	1 October 1900 – 21 October 1920
		Alexander Parker (1891–1970s)	Labor	21 October 1920 – 30 August 1921
		Richard Fetherston (1964–1943)	Nationalist	30 August 1921 – 26 June 1924
		Arthur Jackson (1874–1957)	Labor	26 June 1924 – 14 May 1932
		John Ellis (1872–1945)	United Australia	14 May 1932 – 5 March 1945	Died in office
			Liberal	5 March 1945 – 2 July 1945
		Bill Quirk (1891–1948)	Labor	18 August 1945 – 16 November 1948	Won by-election. Died in office
		Frank Crean (1916–2008)	Labor	22 January 1949 – 17 March 1951	Former member for Albert Park. Won by-election. Resigned in 1951 to successfully contest federal seat of Melbourne Ports and later served as Deputy Prime Minister
		Robert Pettiona (1915–1980)	Labor	16 June 1951 – 28 May 1955	Won by-election. Lost seat
		Sam Loxton (1921–2011)	Liberal	28 May 1955 – 5 May 1979
		Bob Miller (1941–)	Labor	5 May 1979 – 2 March 1985	Did not seek re-election in order to unsuccessfully contest Legislative Council seat of Monash
		Don Hayward (1932–)	Liberal	2 March 1985 – 30 March 1996
		Leonie Burke (1949–)	Liberal	30 March 1996 – 30 November 2002	Lost seat
		Tony Lupton (1957–)	Labor	30 November 2002 – 27 November 2010	Lost seat
		Clem Newton-Brown (1967–)	Liberal	27 November 2010 – 29 November 2014	Lost seat
		Sam Hibbins (1982–)	Greens	29 November 2014 – 1 November 2024	Resigned from Greens after admitting to extramarital affair with staff member. Resigned from parliament
			Independent	1 November 2024– 23 November 2024

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the district of Prahran

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2022 Victorian state election (Legislative Assembly) § Prahran.[edit]

2022 Victorian state election: Prahran

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Greens	Sam Hibbins	14,286	36.4	+8.1
	Liberal	Matthew Lucas	12,198	31.1	−1.6
	Labor	Wesa Chau	10,421	26.6	−3.9
	Animal Justice	Alice Le Huray	1,263	3.2	+0.9
	Family First	Ronald Emilsen	626	1.6	+1.6
	Independent	Alan Menadue	449	1.1	+0.8
Total formal votes			39,243	97.0	+2.1
Informal votes			1,223	3.0	−2.1
Turnout			40,466	82.7	−1.6
Notional two-party-preferred count
	Labor	Wesa Chau	23,966	61.1	+2.4
	Liberal	Matthew Lucas	15,277	38.9	–2.4
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Greens	Sam Hibbins	24,334	62.0	+3.0
	Liberal	Matthew Lucas	14,909	38.0	−3.0
	Greens hold		Swing	+3.0

Primary vote results in Prahran (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

  Liberal

  Labor

  Greens

Two-candidate-preferred results in Prahran

External links

• District profile from the Victorian Electoral Commission

References

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