ALP 8.3%
Incumbent MP
Alan Griffin, since 1996.
Geography
South-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Bruce covers the northern suburbs of Greater Dandenong council and the eastern suburbs of Monash council. Suburbs include Dandenong, Noble Park, Mulgrave, Wheelers Hill, Glen Waverley and Notting Hill.
History
The seat of Bruce has existed since the 1955 election. Prior to 1996 it was a relatively safe Liberal seat, but demographic and boundary changes have seen the seat become a marginal Labor seat.
The seat was first won in 1955 by Liberal candidate Billy Snedden. Snedden served as a Cabinet minister from 1964 to 1972, serving as Billy McMahon’s Treasurer from 1971 until the government’s defeat in 1972. Snedden was elected Leader of the Liberal Party, and served in the role for the first two years of the Whitlam government. He used the Coalition’s Senate majority to block the Whitlam government’s budget, triggering the 1974 election, which he lost.
Snedden lost the Liberal leadership in early 1975, and was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1976 after the election of the Fraser government. He served in the role for the entirety of the Fraser government, and after the defeat of the government in 1983 he retired from Parliament.
The 1983 Bruce by-election was won by the Liberal Party’s Ken Aldred. Aldred had previously held the seat of Henty from 1975 to 1980, when he was defeated. Aldred held Bruce until 1990, when he moved to the seat of Deakin, and held it until 1996.
Bruce was held by the Liberal Party’s Julian Beale from 1990 to 1996, when he lost to the ALP’s Alan Griffin.
Griffin served as a shadow minister from 1998 to the election of the Rudd government in 2007, when he was appointed Minister for Veterans’ Affairs.
Candidates
- Mike Kabos (Liberal)
- Stefan Zibell (Greens)
- Felicity Hemmersbach (Family First)
- Alan Griffin (Labor)
Political situation
This seat is relatively safe for the ALP.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Alan Griffin | ALP | 41,754 | 51.85 | +4.55 |
| Angela Randall | LIB | 30,257 | 37.57 | -5.52 |
| Rob Cassidy | GRN | 4,102 | 5.09 | -0.15 |
| Bronwyn Rawlins | FF | 2,295 | 2.85 | +0.22 |
| Richard Grossi | DEM | 1,012 | 1.26 | -0.12 |
| Sandra Joy Hermann | CDP | 678 | 0.84 | +0.84 |
| Neil Henry Smith | ON | 433 | 0.54 | +0.54 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Alan Griffin | ALP | 46,966 | 58.32 | +4.84 |
| Angela Randall | LIB | 33,565 | 41.68 | -4.84 |
Booth breakdown
Bruce covers parts of two local government areas: Monash and Greater Dandenong. Each of these LGAs have been broken into two for a total of four booth areas.
The ALP won large majorities in the range of 66-71% in the two areas in the Greater Dandenong council area. The ALP won a slim majority in Monash council area, winning just under 53% in the Mulgrave-Wheelers Hill area. The Liberal Party won a slim majority of 50.25% in the northernmost area of Glen Waverley.
| Voter group | GRN % | ALP 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Mulgrave-Wheelers Hill | 4.97 | 52.94 | 21,043 | 26.13 |
| Dandenong | 4.51 | 66.54 | 16,154 | 20.06 |
| Glen Waverley | 5.84 | 49.75 | 15,558 | 19.32 |
| Springvale-Noble Park | 4.76 | 71.32 | 11,383 | 14.13 |
| Other votes | 5.35 | 56.24 | 16,393 | 20.36 |
I’ve lived in this seat for the past 20 years and i have never seen Alan Griffin campaigning once. Nor have i seen him do anything for the seat of Bruce. Why do people keep voting him in?
Why vote for Alan G? Simply bc the liberals suck
My prediction: Labor retain with a 2% swing to them.
@Steve – I used to live in Bruce a few years ago, and noticed we got some material for the first time from Alan Griffin after the close result in Bruce in the 2004 election 🙂
@Nick – I agree, I think 2% swing to Alan Griffin in Bruce is highly likely given how well the ALP is polling in Victoria (although I guess they must be getting close to a ceiling in their vote in the southern part of the electorate).
@ Maria. Clearly you have no idea. Why are you wasting your time writing inane comments like that.
As far as I can tell, the only hope we have for any growth or advancements forward in infrastructure in Bruce is a change of leader. Alan Griffith has no interest in this electorate other than just getting himself re-elected.