Electoral district of Monbulk

Monbulk Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Location of Monbulk (dark green) in Victoria
State	Victoria
Created	1967
MP	James Merlino
Party	Australian Labor Party
Electors	41,906 (2014)
Area	265 km^2 (102.3 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer metropolitan

The Electoral district of Monbulk is an electoral district of the Victorian Legislative Assembly. It is situated in the Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne. It includes the towns of Monbulk, Olinda and Silvan as well as some outer suburbs such as Belgrave and Tecoma.

The Puffing Billy Railway forms part of the boundary of the electorate, other tourist attractions within the electorate include Mount Dandenong and the Dandenong Ranges National Park, Yellingbo Nature Conservation Reserve and the Silvan Reservoir.

For its first three decades, it was a bellwether seat held by the party of government. It was held by the Liberals from 1967 to 1982 before falling to Labor in the landslide that brought John Cain to power. The Liberals won it back in 1992 as Jeff Kennett won government. While they held onto it in 1999 when Kennett was defeated by Steve Bracks, current Labor member James Merlino won it in 2002 and has held it since. It appears to be trending toward Labor in recent years; Merlino held onto it in 2010 even as Labor lost government, and retained it on a healthy swing in 2014 when a redistribution made it notionally Liberal. Merlino is now Deputy Premier of Victoria.

Members for Monbulk

Member		Party	Term
	Bill Borthwick	Liberal	1967–1982
	Neil Pope	Labor	1982–1992
	Steve McArthur	Liberal	1992–2002
	James Merlino	Labor	2002–present

Election results

Victorian state election, 2014: Monbulk^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Mark Verschuur	15,063	40.1	−4.6
	Labor	James Merlino	14,096	37.5	+3.4
	Greens	Michael Clarke	5,029	13.4	−1.6
	Animal Justice	Jennifer McAdam	1,079	2.9	+2.9
	Family First	Amelia Mason	786	2.1	−0.0
	Democratic Labour	Ron Prendergast	433	1.2	−0.4
	Rise Up Australia	Ana Rojas	427	1.1	+1.1
	Independent	Jordan Crook	342	0.9	+0.9
	Country Alliance	Craig Jenkin	293	0.8	−0.2
Total formal votes			37,548	94.8	−0.7
Informal votes			2,044	5.2	+0.7
Turnout			39,592	94.5	−1.6
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	James Merlino	20,643	55.0	+6.1
	Liberal	Mark Verschuur	16,905	45.0	−6.1
	Labor gain from Liberal		Swing	+6.1

References

1. State Election 2014: Monbulk District, VEC.

External links

• Electorate profile: Monbulk District, Victorian Electoral Commission