Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2019
Division of Kooyong, Victoria

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Eastern Melbourne: Balwyn, Camberwell, Canterbury, Hawthorn, Kew
State seats: All of Kew, parts of Box Hill, Burwood and Hawthorn
Local government areas: Parts of Boroondarra and Whitehorse
Enrolment at close of rolls: 108,424
1999 republic referendum: Yes 64.2
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 73.7

Sitting member: Hon Josh Frydenberg (Liberal): Elected 2010, 2013, 2016

2007 Liberal majority over Labor: 9.5%
2010 Liberal majority over Labor: 7.6%
2013 Liberal majority over Labor: 11.1%
2016 Liberal majority over Labor: 13.3%
2019 notional Liberal majority over Labor: 12.8%

Status: Safe Liberal

  • 2016 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Candidates in ballot-paper order:

    1. Steven D'Elia
    United Australia Party
    2. Oliver Yates
    Independent
    3. Dr Angelina Zubac
    Independent
    4. Hon Josh Frydenberg
    Liberal Party
    5. Jana Stewart
    Australian Labor Party
    6. Davina Hinckley
    Animal Justice Party
    7. Julian Burnside
    Australian Greens



    Candidate websites:

    Julian Burnside
    Steven D'Elia
    Hon Josh Frydenberg
    Jana Stewart
    Oliver Yates
    Dr Angelina Zubac

    Division of Kooyong

    Kooyong has existed since Federation, and has always taken in Melbourne's prosperous inner eastern suburbs, based originally on Kew and Hawthorn. Successive redistributions have extended the seat to the east but have not changed its social composition or its political alignment. It has one of the country's highest levels of median household income and highest proportions of people in professional and managerial occupations. It also has a fairly high level of families with dependent children, but a much lower rate of dwellings being purchased. This is an electorate of affluent, home-owning upper and middle-class families.

    Kooyong is a traditional "leadership seat" for the non-Labor parties. It has never come close to electing a Labor member, but did spoil its perfect record of loyalty to the non-Labor parties once, by electing an independent liberal in 1922. That was John Latham, who went on to be Leader of the Nationalist Party.

    Kooyong's most illustrious member has been Sir Robert Menzies, Prime Minister from 1939 1941 and from 1949 to 1966, and founder of the modern Liberal Party. His successor Andrew Peacock was twice leader of the Liberal Party but failed to become Prime Minister. He was succeeded by Petro Georgiou, a former state director of the Liberal Party and senior adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser. Georgiou found himself out of sympathy with the Howard government and became a leading backbench dissident. He retired in 2010.

    Josh Frydenberg, Liberal MP for Kooyong since 2010, is a lawyer who was an adviser to John Howard and Alexander Downer, and later a director of Deutsche Bank. He is the first Jewish member of the House from the non-Labor side since 1906. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister from 2013, then Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia. In July 2016 he became Minister for the Environment and Energy. In this portfolio he presided over the debacle of the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee, but emerged unscathed to be elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party when Turnbull and his deputy Julie Bishop stepped down in August 2018. He was then appointed Treasurer by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. If he succeeds in this position he will be well-positioned to become the next Liberal leader.

    In late January it emerged that Oliver Yates, a former international banker and CEO of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and son of the late Bill Yates, a Liberal MP, will run against Frydenberg as an independent. The Labor candidate will be Jana Stewart, an Indigenous woman who is a family therapist. The Greens candidate is Julian Burnside, a prominent barrister and immigration activist.

    Demographics:

    Median weekly household income: $2,035 (Australia $1,438)
    People over 65: 16.4% (Australia 15.8%)
    Ancestry: Chinese 11.6%
    Non-English-speaking households: 32.0% (Australia 22.2%)
    Catholics 21.5% (Australia 22.6%)
    No religion 36.6% (Australia 29.6%)
    University graduates: 46.8% (Australia 22.0%)
    Professional and managerial employment: 57.8% (Australia 35.2%)
    Employed in manufacturing and construction: 12.8% (Australia 22.9%)
    Paying a mortgage: 28.1% (Australia 34.5%)
    Renting: 31.5% (Australia 30.9%)
    Traditional families: 35.6% (Australia 32.8%)

    Members:

    William Knox (FT, AS, Lib) 1901-10
    Hon Sir Robert Best (Lib, Nat) 1910-22
    Rt Hon John Latham (Nat, UAP) 1922-34
    Rt Hon Sir Robert Menzies (UAP, Lib) 1934-66
    Hon Andrew Peacock (Lib) 1966b-95
    Petro Giorgiou (Lib) 1995b-2010
    Hon Josh Frydenberg (Lib) 2010-

    Boundaries following 2018 redistribution:




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