Bentleigh – Victoria 2010

ALP 6.3%

Incumbent MP
Rob Hudson, since 2002.

Geography
 Southern Melbourne. Bentleigh covers southern parts of the City of Glen Eira and northwestern parts of the City of Kingston. The seat covers the suburbs of Bentleigh, Bentleigh East, McKinnon and Moorabbin East and parts of Moorabbin, Oakleigh South and Ormond.

History
 Bentleigh was first created prior to the 1967 election. In thirteen elections, Bentleigh has been won by the party that formed government eleven times.

Bentleigh was first won in 1967 by the Liberal Party’s Bob Suggett, who had previously held the seat of Moorabbin since 1955. He held the seat until his defeat in 1979 by the ALP’s Gordon Hockley.

Hockley was re-elected in 1982 and 1985, and retired in 1988, when he was succeeded by the ALP’s Ann Barker.

Barker held the seat for only one term, losing Bentleigh in 1992 to the Liberal Party’s Inga Peulich. Peulich held Bentleigh for three terms, losing her seat in 2002. She later won a Legislative Council seat in the South Eastern Metropolitan region in 2006.

Bentleigh has been held since 2002 by the ALP’s Rob Hudson, who had previously been an advisor to Deputy Prime Minister Brian Howe and Premier Steve Bracks.

Candidates

Political situation
Bentleigh has a reasonably solid margin for the ALP, but it’s history suggests that it could fall to the Liberal Party if they perform strongly.

2006 result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Rob Hudson ALP 15,811 46.99 -0.64
James Gobbo LIB 13,347 39.67 -2.41
Peter D’Arcy GRN 3,428 10.19 +0.67
Michael Portelli FF 916 2.72 +2.72
Colin Horne CEC 144 0.43 -0.38

2006 two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Rob Hudson ALP 18,950 56.32 +1.58
James Gobbo LIB 14,696 43.68 -1.58

Booth breakdown
Booths in Bentleigh have been divided into three areas: those around Bentleigh and Moorabbin and those at the northern end fo the seat. The ALP won similar majorities in all three areas, winning around 56-57%. The Greens won around 9-10% in each area.

 

Polling booths in Bentleigh at the 2006 state election. North in yellow, Bentleigh in blue, Moorabbin in green.
Voter group GRN % ALP 2CP % Total votes % of votes
North 10.11 57.86 11,600 34.34
Bentleigh 10.53 56.32 9,372 27.75
Moorabbin 9.39 57.39 6,099 18.06
Other votes 10.55 52.09 6,707 19.86
Two-party-preferred votes in Bentleigh at the 2006 state election.

8 COMMENTS

  1. Candidates in ballot paper order are:

    Elizabeth Miller – Liberal
    Julian Coutts – DLP
    Brett Hedger – Greens
    Rob Hudson – Labor
    Lex Graber – Family First
    John Myers –

    If anyone has a web-link for Mr Myers, or any other independent candidates in other seats, I’m sure Ben would appreciate you posting them as it’s often difficult to find some candidates’ sites.

  2. I think Rob Hudson could be described as “the member for the McKinnon school zone”. He’s ignored the other school zones (especially Brighton Secondary College) which covers about a quarter of the electorate. We’ve seen nothing of him for four years and haven’t seen him once in a year in Bentleigh handing out how to vote cards, yet the Liberals and greens are there all the time, where is the ALP…a very different effort from 2006.

    The thing to remember about Bentleigh only member (Gordon Hockley ALP 1979-1988) has left the seat on their own terms. And Gordon was the only one to treat it as a marginal seat and stayed a backbencher so not to be diverted from keeping his seat. Every one else (ALP and Liberal) has thought themselves safe a paid the price.

  4. Robb Hudson has been trying to distance himself from the ALP. None of his advertising material has borne any mention of the ALP.
    The only evidence that he is in fact a member of the Labor party, is in his email address. Curious that he appears ashamed to be in the Labor party.

  5. Prediction: LIB GAIN, excatly the sort of seat which noone paid attention too, but falls quite heavily on a swing of the sort expected by Newspoll and Nielsen

  6. I live in Bentleigh and can confidently say that the ALP ignored Bentleigh and only commenced campaigning in the last week. We haven’t seen Rob Hudson for 4 years and his recent campaign was a rehash of 2006. In 2006 the prepoll and absentee was 50/50 (ALP/Lib) but 58/42 at the ballot box on the day.

    My prediction. Bentleigh has a history of being decided by between 70 and 100 votes, mostly recently in 1985 and 1988 when it was pivotal in deciding government. However, whoever won on the night has always gone on to win the seat.

    I’m expecting the Liberals to hang on in a very very close result…possibly ending up in the Court of Disputed Returns.

  7. Lou is wrong.

    @Liberal MP Bob Sugget, the first MLA for Bentleigh held the seat for 12 years;
    @ALP MP Gordon Hockley held the seat for 9 years;
    @ALP Ann Barker held the seat for 4 years;
    @Liberal MP Inga Peulich held the seat for 10 years and was the only MP, Liberal or Labor , to hold on to the seat in Opposition.
    @ALP MP Rob Hudson held the seat for 8 years
    @Liberal Elizabeth Miller is the present MP and needs to work hard to make sure that she is not a one term MP with a margin of only a few hundred votes.

    Fact is fact – without the Labor spin.

  8. Sorry Delyse, I think you’ll find that Gordon Hockey held the seat in opposition between 1979 and 1982.

    My point was only Gordon resigned from the seat (in 1988), everyone else lost their seat in an election.

    I’m also confused about your labor spin comment. My point is simple, Bentleigh has and always will be a swinging electorate.

Comments are closed.