Lalor is a safe Labor seat on the western fringe of Melbourne. The seat has been held in the past by a series of prominent Labor figures: former Chifley government minister Reg Pollard, Whitlam-era Deputy Prime Minister Jim Cairns and Hawke government minister Barry Jones.
The seat has been held by Julia Gillard since 1998. Gillard was recently elected Prime Minister after serving as Deputy Prime Minister since the 2007 election.
Calwell is a very safe Labor seat in the outer northern suburbs of Melbourne. Calwell covers most of Hume council area, and includes the suburbs of Broadmeadows, Craigieburn, Sunbury and Tullamarine.
The seat has been held by Maria Vamvakinou since 2001, who won the seat off Andrew Theophanous, who had been a Labor member until he was accused of allegations of migration fraud in 2000 and became an independent MP.
Gorton is a very safe Labor seat in the western suburbs of Melbourne. The seat was only created at the redistribution before the 2004 election, named after former Prime Minister John Gorton.
The seat is held by Brendan O’Connor, who had previously won the seat of Burke in 2001. O’Connor is a junior minister in the Labor government, and should win re-election with ease.
Gellibrand is a very safe Labor seat in western Melbourne. Gellibrand covers most Maribyrnong and Hobsons Bay council areas, which covers the suburbs immediately to the west of the centre of Melbourne and those along Port Phillip Bay. Key suburbs include Altona, Seaholme, Williamstown, Newport, Spotswood, Kingsville, Yarraville, Seddon, Footscray, Tottenham, Braybrook and Maidstone.
Gellibrand has been held by Health Minister Nicola Roxon since 1998.
Maribyrnong is a safe Labor seat in western Melbourne. The seat is held by Bill Shorten, who won it in 2007 after a successful preselection challenge to the sitting member, Bob Sercombe. The seat has almost always been held by the ALP, with the exception of a decade in the 1950s and 1960s when it was held by a Liberal with the help of high levels of preferences from the Democratic Labor Party, and one term in the 1930s.
The seat covers the suburbs of Sunshine, Albion, Kealba, Essendon, Aberfeldie, Moonee Ponds, Niddrie and Keilor.
Wills is a safe Labor seat in northwestern Melbourne. The seat has been won by the ALP at almost every election, except for the 1992 by-election and the following election in 1993, when the seat was won by left-wing independent and former footballer Phil Cleary. He won the seat following the retirement of former Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who had held the seat since 1980. The seat is now held by Kelvin Thomson, who won the seat off Cleary in 1996.
There is also a high vote for the Greens in southern parts of the seat.
Holt is a safe Labor seat in southeastern Melbourne. The seat has nearly always been held by the ALP, including a number of prominent party figures. The seat was held by Michael Duffy from 1980 to 1996. Duffy served as a federal minister in the Hawke/Keating government for ten years.
He was succeeded by Gareth Evans, who had been a senior Hawke/Keating minister from the Senate, and served as Shadow Treasurer and deputy Labor leader for the first term of the Howard government. The seat has been held by Anthony Byrne since Evans’ retirement in 1999.
Isaacs is a relatively safe Labor seat on the southeastern fringe of Melbourne. Isaacs was a traditional marginal seat, but a redistribution before the 1996 election solidified the ALP’s hold on the seat. The seat was won by Mark Dreyfus in 2007 after sitting MP Ann Corcoran was pushed out in a contested preselection despite winning a majority of votes among local ALP members. The seat was also previously held by Greg Wilton, who is the only member of the House of Representatives to die by suicide, when he died in 2000.
Chisholm is a relatively safe Labor seat in eastern Melbourne. The seat has been held by Labor MP Anna Burke since she won it in 1998. Before that it was held by Liberal minister Michael Wooldridge. The seat had a long history of being won easily by the Liberals, and then became more marginal in the 1980s, although Burke has solidified her position over the last decade.
Bruce is a Labor seat in southeastern Melbourne. The seat was held by the Liberal Party continuously from its creation in 1955 until 1996, when it went across the national trend, with the ALP’s Alan Griffin winning the seat. Griffin is now Minister for Veterans’ Affairs.
The seat covers the suburbs of Dandenong, Noble Park, Mulgrave, Wheelers Hill, Glen Waverley and Notting Hill.
