Flinders – Election 2010

LIB 8.3%

Incumbent MP
Greg Hunt, since 2001.

Geography
Flinders covers regional areas to the south east of Melbourne, including the Mornington Peninsula and areas around Western Port. The main population centres include Sorrento, Rosebud, Dromana, Hastings, Somerville, Cowes, San Remo and Koo Wee Rup.

History
Flinders is an original federation electorate, and has a long history of having been held by conservative parties, with Labor only winning the seat three times, and no Labor MP managing to win re-election in Flinders.

The seat was first won in 1901 by Free Trader Arthur Groom, a former member of the Victorian colonial Parliament. Groom was not an active member of the first Parliament, and retired in 1903.

Flinders was won in 1903 by another Free Trade candidate, James Gibb, who had served in the Victorian Legislative Assembly in the 1880s. He held the seat for one term. Gibb left Flinders in 1906 in an attempt to defeat William Lyne in the NSW seat of Hume. Lyne was a former Premier of NSW and a prominent Protectionist minister, and easily saw off Gibb.

Flinders was won in 1906 by former Victorian Premier William Irvine. Irvine joined the merged Liberal Party in 1909. He served as a senior minister in Joseph Cook’s government from 1913 to 1914. He left Parliament to serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1918.

The 1918 Flinders by-election was won by Nationalist candidate Stanley Bruce. Bruce was appointed Treasurer in 1921. After the 1922 election the Nationalists had to rely on Country Party support to remain in government, and as a price for their support the Country Party demanded the replacement of Billy Hughes as Prime Minister, which saw Bruce appointed Prime Minister.

Bruce won re-election at the 1925 and 1928 elections, but his government came undone in 1929 when Billy Hughes led a group of Nationalist rebels across the floor in opposition to industrial relations legislation, and Bruce lost his majority.

Bruce’s Nationalists not only lost the federal election, but Bruce himself was defeated in Flinders by the ALP’s Jack Holloway. Holloway was secretary of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council, who had stood against Bruce in protest at the government’s arbitration policies.

Holloway was a leading left-winger in the Labor caucus during the Scullin government, and moved to the safer seat of Melbourne Ports in 1931. Holloway had served as an assistant minister for much of the Scullin government, and he went on to serve as a minister in the Curtin and Chifley governments, retiring in 1951.

Bruce won back Flinders in 1931 for the newly-formed United Australia Party. Bruce was appointed as a minister without portfolio in the Lyons government, and soon went to London to represent the Government. He resigned from Parliament in 1933 to serve as High Commissioner to London from the Australian government. Bruce served in the role until 1945, playing a key role in Australia’s participation in the Second World War. Bruce went on to serve in the House of Lords.

The 1933 Flinders by-election was won by James Fairbairn, who had served briefly as a UAP state MP before moving to federal Parliament. Fairbairn regularly flew aircraft and was appointed as Minister for Civil Aviation in the Menzies government in 1939. He served as the first Minister for the Air, with responsibility for the Royal Australian Air Force, and served as a key minister in the war effort until his death.

Fairbairn died in a plane crash in 1940. He was flying from Melbourne to Canberra along with four crew and five other passengers, including two other ministers and the Chief of the Defence Staff, and the plane crashed on approach to the airport in Canberra.

Fairbairn died only one month before the 1940 federal election, so no by-election was held. Flinders was won at the ensuing election by Rupert Ryan of the UAP. Ryan held the seat for the UAP and the successor Liberal Party until his death in 1952.

The 1952 Flinders by-election was won in a surprise result by the ALP’s Keith Ewert. He lost the seat at the 1954 federal election to Liberal candidate Robert Lindsay.

Lindsay held the seat until 1966, serving on the backbenches for twelve years.

In 1966, Flinders was won by Liberal candidate Phillip Lynch. Lynch quickly rose to ministerial rank, serving as a minister from 1968 until the defeat of the McMahon government in 1972.

Lynch became Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party under Billy Snedden after the 1972 election. He continued to serve in that role under Malcolm Fraser’s leadership.

Lynch served as Treasurer from 1975 to 1977, when he was forced to resign from the ministry due to allegations of tax minimisation. He was only out of office for a month before returning to Cabinet. Lynch retired from Parliament in 1982.

The 1982 Flinders by-election was won by the Liberal Party’s Peter Reith. The by-election took place in December 1982, but he never took his seat, as Fraser called a double dissolution in March 1983.

Reith had won Flinders at the 1982 by-election with a small margin, and lost the seat to the ALP’s Bob Chynoweth in 1983. He won the seat back in 1984. Chynoweth moved to the new seat of Dunkley, holding it until 1990, and again from 1993 to 1996.

Reith joined the Liberal frontbench in 1987, and served as Deputy Leader and Shadow Treasurer from 1990 to 1993. He served as Minister for Workplace Relations in the Howard government from 1996 to 2000, and then as Minister for Defence from 2000 until his retirement in 2001.

Flinders was won in 2001 by Greg Hunt, a former advisor to Alexander Downer in the 1990s. Hunt was appointed as a Parliamentary Secretary in the final year of the Howard government. Following the 2007 election he has joined the opposition frontbench as the key shadow minister with environmental responsibilities.

Candidates

Political situation
This seat is relatively safe for the Liberal Party, and would only be vulnerable to the ALP in the case of a massive landslide. The original ALP candidate, Adrian Schonfelder, stood down after controversial comments blaming Liberal leader Tony Abbott for driving people to suicide, although he claimed to be stepping down due to a car accident.

2007 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Greg Hunt LIB 48,343 54.47 -3.70
Gary March ALP 30,073 33.88 +2.99
Bob Brown GRN 7,529 8.48 +2.21
Cameron Eastman FF 1,988 2.24 +0.51
David Batten DEM 822 0.93 +0.07

2007 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Greg Hunt LIB 51,697 58.25 -2.86
Gary March ALP 37,058 41.75 +2.86

Booth breakdown
Flinders covers parts of four local government areas. It covers almost all of Mornington Peninsula, where most of the population lives. That area has been divided into two: “west” covers those along Port Philip Bay, with the remainder grouped as “east”. A majority of Bass Coast LGA is also included in Flinders, and booths in this area have been grouped. The southern parts of Casey and Cardinia councils are also included, and these areas have been grouped as “North”.

The Liberal Party won a majority in all areas. They won over 63% in the nort h of the seat, and majorities between 55% and 58% in the rest of the seat. The Greens polled much more strongly in Bass Coast, with 12%, with less than 5% in the north and 8-9% on the Peninsula.

Polling booths in Flinders. Bass Coast in red, North in blue, Peninsula East in green, Peninsula West in yellow.

 

Voter group GRN % LIB 2CP % Total votes % of votes
Peninsula West 8.09 58.29 27,670 31.18
Peninsula East 8.91 56.14 21,228 23.92
North 4.92 63.53 9,025 10.17
Bass Coast 12.05 55.85 6,351 7.16
Other votes 8.95 58.70 24,481 27.58
Results of the 2007 federal election in Flinders.
Results of the 2007 federal election on the Mornington Peninsula.

19 COMMENTS

  1. 83% TPP in Portsea!

    That would be just about the best “urban” conservative booth in the country. I don’t think even Toorak or Vaucluse delivered that.

  2. 1929 often cited during WorkChoices debate but Holloway had actually been jailed for defying industrial laws compare his fate to Kevin Harkin! Holloway wrote memoirs but they are pretty uninformative

  5. My name is Adrian Schonfelder and I am the Labor candidate for Flinders. I am a sixth generation Victorian from Rye who has a lifelong connection with the region as my Great Grandfather was William Sunderland, who settled on Phillip Island and Sunderland Bay is named after his family.

    I believe Australians deserve better –

    – Better economy, job creation, fair industrial relations rules

    – Better Health Services

    – Respect for Pensioners with the biggest increase in the pension in this generation

    – Better infrastructure including renewable energy and improved water supplies

    – Better Transport facilities and improved Roads

    – Preserving and caring for our environment and ensuring the heritage of our local towns and villages is maintained with sustainable development.

    – As a farm hand and later as a Policy Analyst at the Victorian Farmers Federation I am an advocate for Primary Producers.

    Public service was always important to my family – both my Grandfather and Great Grandfather were both Shire Councillors. I was elected as the youngest Shire Councillor in Victoria’s history in the former Shire of Barrabool.

  9. Hi Ben,

    Can you please update this site in relation to Candidates and add that Adrian Schonfelder is running for the Labor Party.

    Thanking you in anticipation.

    Adrian

  11. Adrian, based on what I have read of your comment & opinion, you wish to link abbott with suicide…….therefore, based on that alone, you are a disgusting excuse for a human being……people like you are the very reason we should be voting someone with moral fibre like Tony Abbott to office!!! BTW: I’d like to meet you in the street, you are an idiot!!!!!!

  12. Hi Adrian,
    I am concerned about your attack and accusations against Tony Abbott’s personally held views and values.

    For a start there is growing evidence, that just the opposite to what you say is true and that strong moral values when espoused too and presented in a loving way have saved many people from ending their lives and also lead young people to having healthier and happier relationships and marriages.
    Tony Abbott is entitled to his personal values and views, which he doesn’t try to force on to other people, so why are you so threatened and using dirt and smear attacks? You must be in a bad place politically to have to resort to such ‘low’ life tactics.

  17. Its a shame you had a car accident. It should have been a bus! Labour now has a real chance with you finally waking up to yourself and going back from under the rock where you belong!

  18. How about a REAL alternative – the “Other” Bob Brown!!! I’m sick and tired of the useless, counterproductive nature of the Liberal, economy driven agenda (failing to note that governments are in place to provide a RANGE of services, not just maintain “the boys” power. Labor is just as useless – give us a policy you will stand behind. Greens are the only party offering a direction, with a clear platform and willing to stand by a viable alternative for the long haul. It’s time to get rid of this pip-squeak Hunt and give someone that will actually speak for real Australians a go.

    Go Bob, Go Bob, Go Bob, Go Bob, Go Bob!!!

Comments are closed.