LIB 6.0%
Incumbent MP
Kevin Andrews, since 1991.
Geography
North-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Menzies covers the entirety of Manningham council area as well as a northern part of Maroondah council area.
History
Menzies was created as part of the expansion of the House of Representatives at the 1984 election. It has always been held by the Liberal Party for its short history.
The seat was first won in 1984 by Liberal candidate Neil Brown. Brown had previously held the marginal seat of Diamond Valley on two occasions, holding it from 1969 to 1972 and 1975 to 1983. He had served as a minister in the Fraser government from 1981 to 1983. Brown was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party from 1985 to 1987, and retired in 1991.
The Menzies by-election in 1991 was easily won by Liberal candidate Kevin Andrews, with no Labor candidate standing. Andrews was a strongly conservative backbencher, and pushed through a private members’ bill in 1996 overturning the Northern Territory’s euthanasia laws.
Andrews was appointed as a junior minister in 2001 and was promoted to Cabinet in 2003. He was originally responsible for implementing the Workchoices policy after the 2004 election, and then served as Minister for Immigration. He moved to the backbench after the 2007 election, but returned to the spotlight in late 2009 in opposition to Malcolm Turnbull’s leadership, and was appointed to the shadow cabinet by Tony Abbott in late 2009 when he was elected as Leader of the Opposition.
Candidates
- Ken Smithies (Family First)
- Chris Padgham (Greens)
- Kevin Andrews (Liberal) – Member for Menzies since 1991.
- Joy Banerji (Labor) – Monash councillor.
Political situation
This seat is relatively safe for the Liberal Party, and Andrews should be able to win re-election comfortably barring a massive Labor landslide.
2007 result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Kevin Andrews | LIB | 43,393 | 51.60 | -5.19 |
| Andrew Campbell | ALP | 29,249 | 34.78 | +1.99 |
| David Ellis | GRN | 5,291 | 6.29 | -0.17 |
| Philip Nitschke | IND | 3,297 | 3.92 | +3.92 |
| Ken Smithies | FF | 2,036 | 2.42 | +0.28 |
| Damian Wise | DEM | 822 | 0.98 | -0.53 |
2007 two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Kevin Andrews | LIB | 47,104 | 56.02 | -4.65 |
| Andrew Campbell | ALP | 36,984 | 43.98 | +4.65 |
Booth breakdown
Booths have been divided into four areas. The small area contained in Maroondah council area are contained in “South East”. The booths in Manningham have been divided into West, North East and Central
The Liberal Party won in all areas, but only won a slim majority in the western part of the seat, around 56% in the centre, and around 58-61% in the less populated eastern parts of the seat.
| Voter group | GRN % | LIB 2CP % | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 5.02 | 56.06 | 28,521 | 33.92 |
| West | 5.39 | 50.86 | 23,551 | 28.01 |
| North East | 10.85 | 60.99 | 6,808 | 8.10 |
| South East | 7.09 | 58.81 | 6,399 | 7.61 |
| Other votes | 7.43 | 59.67 | 18,809 | 22.37 |
“He was originally responsible for implementing the Workchoices policy after the 2004 election, and then served as Minister for Immigration.”
Probably the two greatest failures of the last Howard term. And to think the man challenged Turnbull for the Liberal leadership.
This is one of the more non-Anglo Liberal seats but it still so affluent to be safe Liberal. Love how Andrews of the ‘populate or perish’ catholic fundo type has recently been banging on about the environmental consequences of immigration. he is a good example of how conservative Catholics have moved so far to the right.
My prediction: 1% swing to Labor.