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| Adam Carr's Election Archive
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Victorian state election, 28 November 2026
Prahran District
Location: Prahran, South Yarra, Windsor
Legislative Council:
Southern Metropolitan Region
Enrolment 2022 election: 48,933
Enrolment November 2025: 48,467
Sitting member: Rachel Westaway (Liberal): Elected 2025 by
2018 Greens majority over Liberal: 07.5%
2022 Greens majority over Liberal: 12.0%
2025 by-election: Liberal majority over Greens: 01.3%
Status: Three-way marginal
Prahran has existed since 1889, and has always combined wealthy areas such as South Yarra with less affluent areas in Prahran and Windsor. In the postwar years it became a centre of Greek migrant settlement, and also has a substantial Jewish community in East St Kilda. In recent decades it has become a densely-populated, cosmopolitan inner-city seat, with many affluent singles, and a signficant gay and lesbian presence.
Prfahran elected a Labor member as early as 1894, and has usually been a marginal seat. But it was held for the Liberals through the Bolte and Hamer years by a Liberal, Sam Loxton, a former test cricketer. After his retirement in 1979 the seat fell to Labor, but was regained by the Liberals following a favourable redistricting in 1985. Don Hayward (member 1985-96) was a minister in the Kennett government. He was succeeded by another Liberal, Leonie Burke, but she was defeated in Labor's landslide victory in 2002. Labor member Tony Lupton held the seat until 2010, when he was defeated by Liberal Clem Newton-Brown.
In 2014 there was a tense three-way struggle between Newton-Brown, Labor's Neil Pharoah and the Greens' Sam Hibbins. When the minor candidates were eliminated, Hibbins was 30 votes ahead of Pharoah, and Pharoah's preferences then gave Hibbins a 300-vote win over Newton-Brown. The same scenario played out the 2018 election, with Pharoah's preferences again giving Hibbins a narrow win over the Liberal Dr Katie Allen (later a federal MP). The 2021 redistricting helped the Greens by removing Toorak from the seat, and at the 2022 election Hibbins had a fairly easy win.
In November 2024 Hibbins resigned after it was revealed that he was having an extra-marital sexual relationship with a member of his staff. At the subsequent by-election, the former Labor member Tony Lupton ran as an independent, directing his preferences to the Liberals with the stated objective of defeating the Greens. He polled 12.7% of the vote and 65% of his preferences went to the Liberal Rachel Westaway, giving her a 1.4% margin.
Westaway, who is of Thai-Chinese descent, has held senior marketing positions at Cadbury, The Age, SBS and the National Trust. She was a senior member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal from 2003 to 2024, and is a former Assistant Freedom of Information Commissioner. Despite these impressive credentials, she will have an uphill battle to retain Prahran, which was previously the Greens' strongest seat, without the unique circumstances of the by-election.
2022 results
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Boundaries following
2021 redistricting |
See full-size map
Candidates:
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Angelica Di Camillo
Victorian Greens |
Rachel Westaway
Liberal Party |
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