Division of Higgins

Higgins AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision
Division of Higgins inVictoria,as of the2022 federal election
Created	1949
MP	Michelle Ananda-Rajah
Party	Labor
Namesake	H. B. Higgins
Electors	107,782 (2022)
Area	39 km2(15.1 sq mi)
Demographic	Inner metropolitan

TheDivision of Higginsis anAustralian Electoral DivisioninVictoriafor theAustralian House of Representatives.The division covers 41 km²(16 sq mi) inMelbourne's inner south-eastern suburbs. The main suburbs includeArmadale,Ashburton,Carnegie,Glen Iris,Kooyong,Malvern,Malvern East,Murrumbeena,PrahranandToorak;along with parts ofCamberwell,OrmondandSouth Yarra.Though historically a safe conservative seat, Higgins was won by the Liberal Party by a margin of just 3.9 percent over the Labor Party at the 2019 election, the closest result in the seat’s history.It then flipped to Labor in the2022 election.

In June 2021, theAECannounced that the electoral division would include the locality ofWindsorat the following federal election, but that part of the suburb of Glen Iris and the suburb of Hughesdale would be transferred to theDivision of KooyongandDivision of Hothamrespectively.

Higgins is a largelywhite-collarelectorate. According to the2016 census,46.5% of electors hold aBachelor's Degree,more than twice the national average.

The current member for Higgins, since the2022 federal election,isMichelle Ananda-Rajah,a member of theAustralian Labor Party,and the first Labor member in the seat's history.

In 2024, theAustralian Electoral Commissionproposed that the seat would be abolished in the Victorian federal electorate redistribution.

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by theAustralian Electoral Commission.Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

History

H. B. Higgins,the division's namesake

The division was created in 1949. Like other seats in inner-eastern Melbourne, Higgins had historically been a stronghold for theLiberal Party.It was considered a "leadership seat", in part because the seat's first two members,Harold HoltandSir John Gorton,werePrime Ministersof Australia in the period between 1966 and 1971.

More recently, the seat was held by the longest servingTreasurer of Australiaand former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party,Peter Costello,who was a prominent member of theHoward government.Costello resigned from the seat on 19 October 2009, and was succeeded in theensuing by-electionbyKelly O'Dwyer,who would go on to become a minister in theAbbottandTurnbullgovernments.

O'Dwyer retired in 2019. At that election,Laborcame reasonably close to winning this seat for the first time ever, with their highest two-party preferred vote in the history of the seat (46.12%). Liberal candidate Katie Allen, however, saw off a challenge from barristerFiona McLeod,despite suffering a swing of six percent, making Higgins marginal against Labor for the first time ever. Allen became the first Liberal candidate to come up short of an outright majority on the first count. High-profileGreenscandidate and former Australian Rules footballerJason Ballalso contested the seat, receiving almost a quarter of the vote.

At the 2022 election, Labor took the seat for the first time. While Allen led Labor challengerMichelle Ananda-Rajahfor most of the night, on the seventh count the Green candidate's preferences flowed overwhelmingly to Ananda-Rajah, allowing Ananda-Rajah to win on a swing of 4.7 percent.

Higgins is the only Division to have been held by two Prime Ministers. This occurred when Holt went missing while Prime Minister, and then-Senator Gorton used theensuing by-electionto transfer to the House. Prior to 2022, it has only been out of Liberal hands for eight months in its existence, when Gorton became an independent to protest againstMalcolm Fraser's becoming Liberal leader.

The seat is one of the few to have produced two federal Treasurers; Holt and Costello served as Treasurers during their respective tenure in Higgins. Another member, Kelly O'Dwyer had a stint as Assistant Treasurer.

Name

The division is named after JusticeH. B. Higgins(1851–1929), who was a Member of theVictorian Legislative Assembly(1894) and president of theCarlton Football Club(1904). He was a founding Member ofAustralian House of Representatives,serving as theProtectionistmember forNorthern Melbourneand was the Attorney-General in theWatson government(1904). He went on to become aJusticeof theHigh Court of Australia(1906–1929)

Members

	Image	Member	Party	Term	Notes
		Harold Holt (1908–1967)	Liberal	10 December 1949– 17 December 1967	Previously held the Division ofFawkner.Served as minister underMenzies.Served asPrime Ministerfrom1966 to 1967.Died in office
		John Gorton (1911–2002)		24 February 1968– 23 May 1975	Previously a member of theSenate.Served asPrime Ministerfrom1968 to 1971.Served as minister underMcMahon.Did not contest in1975.Failed to win aSenateseat
			Independent	23 May 1975 – 11 November 1975
		Roger Shipton (1936–1998)	Liberal	13 December 1975– 19 February 1990	Lost preselection and retired
		Peter Costello (1957–)		24 March 1990– 19 October 2009	Served asTreasurerunderHoward.Resigned to retire from politics
		Kelly O'Dwyer (1977–)		5 December 2009– 11 April 2019	Served as minister underTurnbullandMorrison.Retired
		Katie Allen (1966–)		18 May 2019– 21 May 2022	Lost seat
		Michelle Ananda-Rajah (1972–)	Labor	21 May 2022– present	Incumbent

Election results

Main article:Electoral results for the Division of Higgins

This section is an excerpt fromResults of the 2022 Australian federal election in Victoria § Higgins.[edit]

2022 Australian federal election:Higgins

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Katie Allen	38,859	40.69	−5.84
	Labor	Michelle Ananda-Rajah	27,187	28.46	+2.39
	Greens	Sonya Semmens	21,632	22.65	−0.06
	Liberal Democrats	Matthew Ford	2,648	2.77	+2.77
	United Australia	Ingram Spencer	1,917	2.01	+0.84
	Reason	Andrew Johnson	1,458	1.53	+1.53
	Animal Justice	Alicia Walker	1,295	1.36	−0.40
	Australian Federation	Suzie Menoudakis	515	0.54	+0.54
Total formal votes			95,511	97.18	−0.31
Informal votes			2,774	2.82	+0.31
Turnout			98,285	91.23	−2.45
Two-party-preferredresult
	Labor	Michelle Ananda-Rajah	49,726	52.06	+4.67
	Liberal	Katie Allen	45,785	47.94	−4.67
	LaborgainfromLiberal		Swing	+4.67

Primary vote results in Higgins (Parties that did not get 5% of the vote are omitted)

Liberal

Labor

Australian Democrats

Greens

Two-party-preferred voteresults in Higgins

External links

• Division of Higgins – Australian Electoral Commission