Division of Higgins

Higgins Australian House of Representatives Division
Division of Higgins (green) in Victoria
Created:	1949
MP:	Kelly O'Dwyer
Party:	Liberal
Namesake:	H. B. Higgins
Area:	39 km² (15 sq mi)
Demographic:	Inner Metropolitan

The Division of Higgins is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria.

The division was created in 1949 and is named after Justice H. B. Higgins (1851–1929), who was a Victorian Member of the legislative assembly (1894), president of the Carlton Football Club (1904), Australian Member of Parliament (1906–1929), and justice of the High Court of Australia.

It includes affluent inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, such as Armadale, Ashburton, Malvern, Toorak and parts of Glen Iris, as well as parts of Camberwell, Carnegie, Murrumbeena, Prahran, and South Yarra.

Historically the seat has been prominent in Australian federal politics and for the Liberal Party of Australia. The seat's first two members, Harold Holt and Sir John Gorton, were the seventeenth and nineteenth Prime Ministers of Australia. Higgins is the only Division to have been held by two Prime Ministers, which occurred when Holt went missing while Prime Minister, and then-Senator Gorton was elected as his replacement.

More recently the Division of Higgins was held by the longest serving Treasurer of Australia and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Costello who was a prominent member of the Howard Government. Costello resigned from the seat on 19 October 2009.

Higgins is currently represented by Kelly O'Dwyer, who won the seat at the 2009 Higgins by-election. The by-election occurred after Costello's early resignation from parliament, and resulted in a 3.19% swing toward the Liberal Party.

Members

Member		Party	Term
	Harold Holt	Liberal	1949–1967
	John Gorton	Liberal	1968–1975
		Independent	1975–1975
	Roger Shipton	Liberal	1975–1990
	Peter Costello	Liberal	1990–2009
	Kelly O'Dwyer	Liberal	2009–present

Election results

Main article: Electoral results for the Division of Higgins

Australian federal election, 2010: Higgins
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Kelly O'Dwyer	42,086	51.74	-1.87
	Labor	Tony Clark	22,700	27.91	-3.17
	Greens	Samuel Hibbins	14,559	17.90	+7.15
	Independent	David Fawcett	1,225	1.51	+1.51
	Family First	Ashley Truter	777	0.96	+0.19
Total formal votes			81,347	97.20	-0.23
Informal votes			2,343	2.80	+0.23
Turnout			83,690	92.58	-1.19
Two-candidate preferred result
	Liberal	Kelly O'Dwyer	46,167	56.75	-0.29
	Labor	Tony Clark	35,180	43.25	+0.29
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.29

References

• Division of Higgins, Australian Electoral Commission

Coordinates: 37°51′32″S 145°02′49″E / 37.859°S 145.047°E / -37.859; 145.047