Division of Higgins
| Higgins Australian House of Representatives Division |
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|---|---|
 Division of Higgins (green) in Victoria |
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| Created: | 1949 |
| MP: | Kelly O'Dwyer |
| Party: | Liberal |
| Namesake: | H. B. Higgins |
| Area: | 39 km² (15 sq mi) |
| Demographic: | Inner Metropolitan |
The Division of Higgins is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria.
The division was created in 1949 and is named after Justice H. B. Higgins (1851–1929), who was a Victorian Member of the legislative assembly (1894), president of the Carlton Football Club (1904), Australian Member of Parliament (1906–1929), and justice of the High Court of Australia.
It includes affluent inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, such as Armadale, Ashburton, Malvern, Toorak and parts of Glen Iris, as well as parts of Camberwell, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Prahran, and South Yarra.
Historically the seat has been prominent in Australian federal politics and for the Liberal Party of Australia. The seat's first two members, Harold Holt and Sir John Gorton, were the seventeenth and nineteenth Prime Ministers of Australia. Higgins is the only Division to have been held by two Prime Ministers, which occurred when Holt went missing while Prime Minister, and then-Senator Gorton was elected as his replacement.
More recently the Division of Higgins was held by the longest serving Treasurer of Australia and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Costello who was a prominent member of the Howard Government. Costello resigned from the seat on 19 October 2009.
Higgins is currently represented by Kelly O'Dwyer, who won the seat at the 2009 Higgins by-election. The by-election occurred after Costello's early resignation from parliament, and resulted in a 3.19% swing towards the Liberal Party.
[edit] Members
| Member | Party | Term | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harold Holt | Liberal | 1949–1967 | |
| John Gorton | Liberal | 1968–1975 | |
| Independent | 1975–1975 | ||
| Roger Shipton | Liberal | 1975–1990 | |
| Peter Costello | Liberal | 1990–2009 | |
| Kelly O'Dwyer | Liberal | 2009–present | |
[edit] Election results
| Australian federal election, 2010: Higgins | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Liberal | Kelly O'Dwyer | 42,086 | 51.74 | -1.87 | |
| Labor | Tony Clark | 22,700 | 27.91 | -3.17 | |
| Greens | Samuel Hibbins | 14,559 | 17.90 | +7.15 | |
| Independent | David Fawcett | 1,225 | 1.51 | +1.51 | |
| Family First | Ashley Truter | 777 | 0.96 | +0.19 | |
| Total formal votes | 81,347 | 97.20 | -0.23 | ||
| Informal votes | 2,343 | 2.80 | +0.23 | ||
| Turnout | 83,690 | 92.58 | -1.19 | ||
| Two-candidate preferred result | |||||
| Liberal | Kelly O'Dwyer | 46,167 | 56.75 | -0.29 | |
| Labor | Tony Clark | 35,180 | 43.25 | +0.29 | |
| Liberal hold | Swing | -0.29 | |||
[edit] References
- Division of Higgins, Australian Electoral Commission
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