Psephos - Adam Carr's Election Archive

Adam Carr's Election Archive

Australian federal election, 2025
Division of Holt, Victoria

Named for: Rt Hon Harold Holt (1908-67), federal MP 1935-67, Prime Minister 1966-67


< Hinkler previous seat | next seat Hotham >
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South-eastern Melbourne: Clyde, Cranbourne, Hampton Park, Lynbrook, Pearcedale

Enrolment at 2019 election: 106,830
Enrolment at 2022 election: 107,397 (+00.6)

1999 republic referendum: No 51.3
2018 same-sex marriage survey: Yes 50.7
2023 Voice referendum: No 57.0

Sitting member: Cassandra Fernando (Labor): Elected 2022


2007 Labor majority over Liberal: 11.6%
2010 Labor majority over Liberal: 13.2%
2013 Labor majority over Liberal: 9.1%
2016 Labor majority over Liberal: 14.2%
2019 Labor majority over Liberal: 8.7%
2022 Labor majority over Liberal: 7.1%
2025 Labor majority over Liberal: 7.1%

Status: Marginal Labor
Labor two-party vote 1983-2022


  • 2022 results
  • Statistics and history

  • Announced candidates:

    Cassandra Fernando
    Australian Labor Party
    Annette Samuel
    Liberal Party

    Division of Holt

    Holt was created in 1969, based on the manufacturing centre of Dandenong in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs. Subsequent redistributions, however, moved the seat further out, removing Dandenong and adding the commuter suburb of Cranbourne. On its recent boundaries Holt was the country's foremost mortgage belt seat - it had the highest proportion of families with dependent children and the highest proportion of dwellings being purchased of any electorate. It is thus acutely sensitive to interest rates, which nearly cost Labor the seat at the 2004 election.

    Gareth Evans, Foreign Minister in the Hawke-Keating Government, won Holt in 1996 after a long career in the Senate. He departed after Labor's defeat in 1998.

    Anthony Byrne, who won the 1999 by-election which followed Evans's resignation, was a parliamentary secretary in the first Rudd Government but was dropped after the 2010 election. He was chair of the Joint Statutory Committee on Intelligence and Security from 2010 to 2013. In March 2022 he announced his retirement.

    The 2018 redistribution removed the Labor strongholds of Doveton and Hallam, and added a stretch of semi-rural territory around Pearcedale and Tooradin. The 2021 redistribution has removed some of the rural areas, but has also removed Labor territory in Narre Warren. These changes substantially reduced the Labor majority, but not enough to give the Liberals a real chance of winning the seat.

    Cassandra ("Cassie") Fernando, Labor MP for Holt since 2022, was an organiser with the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees union (SDA) before her election. She is of Sri Lankan descent. The Liberal candidate in 2025 will be Annette Samuel, who was born in India and operates a business in Narre Warren.

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