Hotham – Australia 2025

ALP 11.6%

Incumbent MP
Clare O’Neil, since 2013.

• Geography
• Redistribution
• History
• Candidates
• Assessment
• 2022 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Geography
Southeastern Melbourne. Hotham covers the suburbs of Clarinda, Heatherton, Oakleigh, Huntingdale, Clayton, Mulgrave, Springvale and Noble Park. It covers parts of Kingston, Glen Eira, Greater Dandenong and Monash council areas.

Redistribution
Hotham expanded north, taking in Notting Hill and the remainder of Oakleigh from Chisholm and Carnegie and Murrumbeena from the abolished seat of Higgins. Hotham also lost part of Bentleigh to Goldstein. These changes reduced the Labor margin from 14.3% to 11.6%.

History
Hotham was originally created as a safe Liberal seat, but changes turned it into a safe Labor seat, and the ALP has held it continuously since 1980.

The seat was first won in 1969 by Liberal Party minister Don Chipp. Chipp had previously held the seat of Higinbotham since 1960, but the seat was abolished in 1969.

Chipp served as a minister in the Liberal government until the election of the Whitlam government in 1972. He was briefly included in Malcolm Fraser’s caretaker ministry after the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975, but was not included in the ministry after the election.

Chipp resigned from the Liberal Party in 1977, and later that year became the leader of the newly-formed Australian Democrats. He was elected as a Senator for Victoria at the 1977 election, and remained in the Senate until his retirement in 1986.

The seat of Hotham was retained by the Liberal Party in 1977, with the seat won by Roger Johnston.

Johnston lost in 1980 to Labor candidate Lewis Kent. Kent held Hotham for the next decade. At the 1990 election, Kent moved to the new seat of Corinella, where he lost to Liberal candidate Russell Broadbent.

Hotham was won by former ACTU president Simon Crean. Crean has held the seat ever since.

Crean immediately entered the ministry upon his election in 1990, and served in the ministry until the Howard government won the 1996 election.

Crean served as a senior Labor frontbencher, and became the party’s deputy leader after the 1998 election. Following Kim Beazley’s defeat at the 2001 election, Crean was elected Leader of the Opposition.

Crean’s leadership was fraught, and he resigned from the leadership in late 2003 without leading the party to an election. He continued to serve in a senior frontbench role, and was appointed Minister for Trade after the election of the Rudd government in 2007.

Crean took on Education Minister when Gillard became Prime Minister in June 2010, and after the 2010 election shifted to take on Arts, Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government.

Simon Crean was sacked as a minister in March 2013 after calling for a leadership spill and calling on Kevin Rudd to challenge Gillard’s leadership. This was the first time in 23 years in Parliament that Crean had not held a frontbench position.

Simon Crean retired in 2013, and was succeeded by Clare O’Neil. O’Neil has been re-elected three times. O’Neil has served as a cabinet minister since the 2022 election, first as Minister for Home Affairs and then as Minister for Housing and Homelessness since July 2024.

Candidates

Assessment
Hotham is a safe Labor seat.

2022 result

2022 two-party-preferred result

Booth breakdown

Polling places in Hasluck have been divided into three areas: north-east, south-east and west.

Labor won a majority of the two-party-preferred vote in all three areas, ranging from 59.7% in the west to 68% in the south-east.

The Greens came third, with a primary vote ranging from 10.9% in the south-east to 18.9% in the west.

Election results in Hotham at the 2022 federal election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

Become a Patron!