NAT 21.3%
Incumbent MP
John Forrest, since 1993.
Geography
North-western Victoria. Mallee covers a large area in the corner of Victoria, bordering New South Wales and South Australia. Mallee covers Gannawarra, Buloke, Hindmarsh, Horsham, Mildura, Swan Hill, West Wimmera and Yarriambiack council areas, and part of Northern Grampians council area. Mallee includes the centres of Mildura, Ouyen, Swan Hill, St Arnaud, Warracknabeal and Horsham.
History
Mallee was created at the redistribution before the 1949 election as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives. It has always been held by the Country Party and its successor National Party.
The seat was won in 1949 by the Country Party’s Winton Turnbull. Turnbull had stood for office for the Country Party before the Second World War, but was captured in the fall of Singapore and was a prisoner of war for over three years. Turnbull won Wimmera in 1946, and moved to the new seat of Mallee in 1949.
Turnbull held Mallee for the next two decades, and retired at the 1972 election.
Mallee was won in 1972 by Peter Fisher, who held Mallee for another two decades, until he retired in 1993.
Mallee was won in 1993 by John Forrest, also of the National Party. Forrest has been re-elected at every election since 1993.
Candidates
- Helen Healy (Greens)
- John Forrest (Nationals) – Member for Mallee since 1993.
- Carl Carter (Family First)
- Bob Scates (Labor)
Political situation
Mallee is the safest Coalition seat in the country. The Nationals should have no trouble retaining the seat.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| John Forrest | NAT | 53,227 | 63.94 | -4.48 |
| John Zigouras | ALP | 18,187 | 21.85 | +1.54 |
| Glenn Coulthard | FF | 5,435 | 6.53 | +2.01 |
| Liam Farrelly | GRN | 3,468 | 4.17 | +0.39 |
| Vikki McLeod | DEM | 2,323 | 2.79 | +1.24 |
| Chris Lahy | CEC | 600 | 0.72 | -0.71 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| John Forrest | NAT | 59,328 | 71.27 | -3.48 |
| John Zigouras | ALP | 23,912 | 28.73 | +3.48 |
Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into five areas according to local government boundaries:
- North – Mildura council area
- East – Swan Hill and Gannawarra
- South West – Horsham and West Wimmera
- Central – Hindmarsh and Yarriambiack
- South East – Buloke and Northern Grampians
The Nationals polled over 70% in four of those areas, while polling less than 66% in the north of the seat, which includes Mildura, which is the largest population centre in the seat.
| Voter group | FF % | GRN % | NAT 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| North | 8.23 | 4.75 | 65.83 | 23,366 | 28.07 |
| East | 4.73 | 2.41 | 75.23 | 16,170 | 19.43 |
| South West | 7.93 | 5.71 | 74.03 | 11,269 | 13.54 |
| Central | 6.69 | 3.26 | 73.64 | 7,922 | 9.52 |
| South East | 4.67 | 2.97 | 73.49 | 5,959 | 7.16 |
| Other votes | 5.64 | 4.80 | 71.28 | 18,554 | 22.29 |
That’s interesting. The ALP candidate here was their candidate in Murray last time.
Safest seat in the country. Lot of good it does us. Ignored by everyone. Swing you bastard.
One interesting thing about this seat is that it was where both Family First and the Democrats recorded their best results in 2007.
My prediction: Utterly boring again. Maybe a slight swing to Labor.