LIB 8.1%
Incumbent MP
Michael O’Brien, since 2006.
Geography
Inner southeastern Melbourne. Malvern covers central and eastern parts of Stonnington local government area, specifically the suburbs of Armadale, Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern East and Toorak, and parts of the suburbs of Chadstone and Glen Iris.
History
Malvern was first created for the 1933 election, and in that time it has always been won by the Liberal Party and its predecessor.
The seat was first won in 1945 by Trevor Oldham for the Liberal Party. Oldham had previously served as Member for Boroondara for the United Australia Party from a by-election in 1933 until the seat was abolished at the 1945 election. He served as Treasurer and Deputy Premier in a number of Liberal Party state governments, and was elected Liberal leader after the 1952 election. He died shortly after in an air crash on his way to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
The seat was won at the 1953 by-election by John Bloomfield. He served as a minister in the Bolte Liberal government from 1955 to 1967, and retired at the 1970 election.
The seat was won in 1970 by Lindsay Thompson, who had served as a Member of the Legislative Council since 1955, first for Higinbotham province, and then Monash province. He had served as a minister in the Liberal government since 1958. Thompson became Premier of Victoria in June 1981, and served until his defeat at the March 1982 election.
Thompson resigned from Parliament following his election defeat, and the 1982 by-election was won by Geoff Leigh. He moved to the new seat of Mordialloc in 1992, and held it until his defeat in 2002.
Leigh had lost preselection for Malvern in 1992 to Robert Doyle. He served as a Parliamentary Secretary in the second term of the Kennett government and was promoted to the frontbench after Kennett’s defeat in 1999. In October 2002 he was elected Liberal leader, but lost badly at the state election the following month. He was replaced as Liberal leader in 2006 and retired from the seat of Malvern at the 2006 election. He went on to win election as Lord Mayor of Melbourne in 2008.
Malvern was won in 2006 by Michael O’Brien, a former advisor to Peter Costello. Michael O’Brien has been re-elected four times. O’Brien became Liberal leader after the 2018 election, and held the role until 2021.
Candidates
Sitting Liberal MP Michael O’Brien is not running for re-election.
- Amelia Hamer (Liberal)
- Georgia Katsikis (Greens)
- Gavin Leonard (Victorian Socialists)
Assessment
The Liberal Party should safely hold this seat.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Michael O’Brien | Liberal | 21,438 | 52.5 | +1.5 |
| Darren Natale | Labor | 10,686 | 26.2 | -3.4 |
| Mitchell Fuller | Greens | 6,390 | 15.7 | +2.5 |
| Amelia Natoli | Animal Justice | 1,005 | 2.5 | -0.4 |
| Steve Stefanopoulos | Independent | 643 | 1.6 | +1.5 |
| Judy Schmidt | Family First | 639 | 1.6 | +1.5 |
| Informal | 1,136 | 2.7 |
2022 two-party-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Michael O’Brien | Liberal | 23,685 | 58.1 | +2.0 |
| Darren Natale | Labor | 17,106 | 41.9 | -2.0 |
Booths have been divided into three areas: central, east and west.
The Liberal Party won a majority in all three areas, ranging from 50.3% in the east to 59.5% in the west.
The Greens came third, with a primary vote of 16.2% in the east to 17.5% in the west.
| Voter group | GRN prim | LIB 2PP | Total votes | % of votes |
| Central | 17.2 | 54.8 | 5,545 | 13.6 |
| West | 17.5 | 59.5 | 4,338 | 10.6 |
| East | 16.2 | 50.3 | 4,144 | 10.2 |
| Pre-poll | 14.9 | 60.2 | 18,964 | 46.5 |
| Other votes | 15.2 | 59.7 | 7,765 | 19.1 |
Election results in Malvern at the 2022 Victorian state election
Toggle between two-party-preferred votes and primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor and the Greens.
I think you guys are on the money though when you talk about the political impact of demographic change, and that is why the Liberals are opposing these plans.
They know that a zoning change isn’t going to suddenly replace all the charming Victorian & Federation homes lining their leafy residential streets, or that the visual character of the suburb will significantly change. Even the high density along the main streets will usually be concealed behind Victorian facades (similar to recent developments along High Street, Windsor).
But the commercial or industrial sites most likely to be replaced with housing currently have no voters, and the type of voters likely to move into the new developments overwhelmingly don’t vote Liberal these days.
So a scare campaign about heritage & character is really their way to oppose an increase in politically unfriendly demographics.
@ Trent
I like the idea of new apartment concelead behind Victorian facades. It alloes for both new housing and a revival of traditional high streets
The point i was trying to make is that while it weakes the area for Libs it does not neccesarily help Labor or Social Democracy as i believe the demographic that will move in are young private sector professionals who work in Finance and Legal who will be more Tealish and may even prefer Greens over Labor. I mentioned that even in the seat of Richmond, Cremorne and Burnely are quite different to Fitzroy and Collingwood.
*weakens
I agree, it will move Malvern more in the direction of seats like Hawthorn and the northern part of Prahran (South Yarra).
I don’t think Richmond is a good comparison. Richmond (especially the eastern side) is more comparable to the southern part of Prahran, but definitely not Hawthorn or anything like what densification would do to Malvern.