Greg Hunt (Lib) His Liberal Party website and his campaign website Gary March (ALP) His ALP website David Batten (Dem) His Democrats website Robert Brown (Grn) His Greens website Cameron Eastman (FF) His Family First website

Location: South-east of Melbourne: Hastings, Mount Martha, Rosebud, Somerville Division named for: Captain Matthew Flinders, explorer of southern Australia Median weekly family income: $816 (112th highest) Persons born in non English speaking countries: 5.5% (97th highest) Persons in professional occupations: 22.7% (102nd highest) Persons aged 65 and over: 17.1% (14th highest) Couple families with dependent children: 35.3% (114th highest) Dwellings being purchased: 30.3% (44th highest) Sitting member: Hon Greg Hunt (Liberal), elected 2001, 2004 Born: 18 November 1965, Melbourne. Career: Lawywer, adviser to Alexander Downer MHR 1994-98, Engagement Manager McKinsey and Co, Director of Strategy World Economic Forum Geneva. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Environment and Heritage 2004-07 Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs since 30 January 2007 1996 two-party majority: Liberal 10.1 1998 two-party majority: Liberal 03.7 2001 two-party majority: Liberal 07.6 Effect of 2004 redistribution: 00.1 shift to Labor 2004 primary votes: Labor 30.9, Liberal 58.2, Green 6.3 2004 two-party majority: Liberal 11.1 2004 enrolment: 90,990 2007 enrolment: 95,608 (+05.1%) Flinders has existed since Federation, and has always occupied the Mornington Peninsula area south of Melbourne. At various times it has also taken in large areas of the southern suburbs of Melbourne and parts of western Gippsland. On its current boundaries most of its voters live in the tourism and retirement towns on the Peninsula, from Mount Martha to Portsea. This explains both the electorate's low median family income and its high proportion of over-65s. In the 1970s and '80s, when the seat included the Labor-voting area of Frankston, the seat was highly marginal. But Labor has won Flinders only three times, including the famous upset in 1929 when Nationalist Prime Minister Stanley Bruce was defeated. In 2004 the Liberals polled 73% of the two-party vote at Portsea, and over 70% at rural booths like Lang Lang and Moorooduc. Labor carried only Shoreham and West Park. Apart from Bruce, eminent members for Flinders have included Liberal Cabinet ministers Sir Phillip Lynch and Peter Reith. Greg Hunt has held the seat for the Liberals since Reith's retirement in 2001. Hunt, the son of longtime state minister Alan Hunt, is now Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Candidates in ballot-paper order Greg Hunt (Liberal) is the sitting member: see biography above. David Batten (Democrats) is CEO of a courier company. Robert Brown (Greens) is a teacher, artist, webpage designer and songwriter (he wrote Give Me a Home Among the Gumtrees). Cameron Eastman (Family First) is a contract manager. Gary March (Labor) is an engineer at BlueScope Steel's steel-rolling manufacturing facility in Hastings.

Two-party vote by booth, 2004 Click to enlarge map Two-party swing by booth, 2004 Click to enlarge map

Members for Flinders

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• Arthur Groom (FT) 1901-03 (retired)
  
• James Gibb (FT, AS) 1903-06 (defeated at Hume)
  
• Hon Sir William Irvine (AS, Lib 1909, Nat 1916) 1906-18 (resigned)
  > Attorney-General 1913-14
  
• Rt Hon Stanley Bruce (Nat) 1918by-29 (defeated)
  > Treasurer 1921-23
  > Prime Minister 1923-29
  > Minister for External Affairs 1923-29
  > Minister for Health 1927-28
  > Minister for Trade and Customs 1928
  
• Hon Ted Holloway (ALP) 1929-31 (shifted to Melbourne Ports)
  > Assistant Minister 1931
  
• Rt Hon Stanley Bruce (UAP) 1931-33 (resigned)
  > Assistant Treasurer 1932
  > Minister without portfolio 1932
  > Minister without portfolio, London 1932-33
  
• Hon James Fairbairn (UAP) 1933by-40 (died)
  > Minister for Civil Aviation 1939-40
  > Minister for Air 1939-40
  > Vice-President of the Executive Council 1939-40
  
• Rupert Ryan (UAP, Lib 1946) 1940-52 (died)
  
• Keith Ewert (ALP) 1952by-54 (defeated)
  
• Robert Lindsay (Lib) 1954-66 (retired)
  
• Rt Hon Sir Phillip Lynch (Lib) 1966-82 (resigned)
  > Minister for the Army 1968-69
  > Minister for Immigration 1969-71
  > Minister assisting the Treasurer 1969-71
  > Minister for Labour and National Service 1971-72
  > Treasurer 1975-77
  > Minister for Finance 1976-77
  > Minister for Industry and Commerce 1977-82
  
• Peter Reith (Lib) 1982by-83 (defeated)
  
• Robert Chynoweth (ALP) 1983-84 (shifted to Dunkley)
  
• Hon Peter Reith (Lib) 1984-2001 (retired)
  > Minister for Industrial Relations 1996-97
  > Minister for Workplace Relations and Small Business 1997-98
  > Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business 1998-2001
  > Minister for Defence 2001
• Hon Greg Hunt (Lib) from 2001
  > Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Environment and Heritage 2004-07
  > Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2007

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