Electoral district of Monbulk

Monbulk
Victoria—Legislative Assembly
Monbulk; Victoria—Legislative Assembly
	Location of Monbulk (dark green) in Victoria
State	Victoria
Created	1967
MP	Daniela De Martino
Party	Labor Party
Namesake	Monbulk, Victoria
Electors	43,324 (2018)
Area	459 km2 (177.2 sq mi)
Demographic	Outer metropolitan
	Electorates around Monbulk:

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 the former Deputy Premier of Victoria - the second Deputy Premier to hold this seat after Bill Borthwick.

Members for Monbulk

	Party	Term
Bill Borthwick	Liberal	1967–1982
Neil Pope	Labor	1982–1992
Steve McArthur	Liberal	1992–2002
James Merlino	Labor	2002–2022
Daniela De Martino	Labor	2022–present

Election results

2022 Victorian state election: Monbulk^[1]^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labor	Daniela De Martino	15,071	36.1	−6.0
	Liberal	Gareth Ward	12,327	29.5	−8.1
	Greens	Michael Ormsby	6,255	15.0	−1.2
	Independent	Johanna Skelton	2,229	5.3	+5.3
	Ind. (Australia One)	Craig Cole	2,069	5.0	+5.0
	Animal Justice	Leah Folloni	1,739	4.2	+4.0
	Family First	David Higgins	1,197	2.9	+2.9
	Freedom	Veronica Barnes	910	2.2	+2.2
Total formal votes			41,797	95.3	+0.3
Informal votes			2,063	4.7	−0.3
Turnout			43,860	90.4	−4.1
Two-party-preferred result
	Labor	Daniela De Martino	24,056	57.6	+0.5
	Liberal	Gareth Ward	17,741	42.4	–0.5
	Labor hold		Swing	+0.5

References

^ Green, Antony (11 January 2023). "VIC22 – 2-Party Preferred Results and Swings by District". Antony Green's Election Blog. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ VIC 2021 Final Redistribution, ABC News. [Retrieved 1 January 2023.
^ Monbulk District results, Victorian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 1 December 2022.