The electoral district of Bentleigh is an electoral district of the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

. It covers an area of in southern

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, including the suburbs of Bentleigh, Hampton East, McKinnon, and

Moorabbin Moorabbin is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 15 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Kingston local government area. Moorabbin recorded a population of 6,287 at the . Most of the ea ...

, and parts of

Bentleigh East Bentleigh East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Glen Eira local government area. Bentleigh East recorded a population of 30,159 at the 2021 census ...

Brighton East Brighton East is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 12 km south-east of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the Cities of Bayside and Glen Eira local government areas. Brighton East recorded a population of 16 ...

and Ormond. It also includes the Moorabbin campus of the

Monash Medical Centre Monash Medical Centre (MMC) is a teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia. It provides specialist tertiary-level healthcare to the Melbourne's south-east. Monash Medical Centre is part of Monash Health, the largest public health service in Vic ...

. It lies within the

Southern Metropolitan Region Southern Metropolitan Region is one of the eight electoral regions of Victoria, Australia, which elects five members to the Victorian Legislative Council (also referred to as the upper house) by proportional representation. The region was create ...

of the upper house, the Legislative Council. Bentleigh has usually been seen as a key marginal seat, lying at the 'point of the

pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the ...

' 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 Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

seat during the height of the Victorian Liberals' popularity. It remained in Liberal hands until

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

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 Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

then held the seat until the Kennett landslide of 1992. Following this, the seat was narrowly held by

Inga Peulich Inga Peulich (; née Došen; born 15 October 1956) is an Australian politician. She was a member of the Legislative Council representing South Eastern Metropolitan Region from 2006 to 2018. From 2014 to 2018, Peulich served as the Victorian L ...

until she was tipped out of office by

Rob Hudson Robert John "Rob" Hudson (born 9 December 1955, in Melbourne, Victoria) is a former Australian politician He holds honours degrees in social work and law, and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for the Labor Party. He was elec ...

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 A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

to form government by one seat. In turn, Miller was ousted by Labor candidate

Nick Staikos Nicholas Staikos (born 4 July 1986) is an Australian politician. He has been a Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly since November 2014, representing the Legislative Assembly seat of Bentleigh. Career In 2005, Staikos w ...

at the 2014 election. Staikos picked up a hefty swing of over 11 percent in Labor's landslide victory of

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

and now sits on a majority of 61.9 percent, easily the strongest result for Labor in the seat's history.

Members for Bentleigh

Election results

References

External links

Electorate profile: Bentleigh District, Victorian Electoral Commission
Electoral districts of Victoria (Australia) 1967 establishments in Australia City of Glen Eira City of Kingston (Victoria) Electoral districts and divisions of Greater Melbourne {{VictoriaAU-gov-stub