Seat of the week: Menzies

The 2013 election delivered the Liberal Party its biggest margin yet in the eastern Melbourne seat of Menzies, which it had held comfortably since its creation in 1984.

Blue numbers indicate size of two-party Liberal polling booth majorities. Click for larger image. Map boundaries courtesy of Ben Raue at The Tally Room.

Menzies covers eastern Melbourne suburbs from Bulleen at the western end through Templestowe, Doncaster, Donvale and Warrandyte to Wonga Park and Croydon North at the eastern end. It was created with the expansion of parliament in 1984, prior to which the area had been divided between Diamond Valley in the west and Casey in the east. At the time of its creation it extended northwards to Eltham, but this area was exchanged for the Warrandyte end of the electorate in 1996. The entire area is solid or better for the Liberals, who have held the seat at all times by margins of no less than 5.4%. The present margin of 14.5% is the highest in the electorate’s history, following consecutive swings of 2.7% against the statewide trend in 2010 and 5.8% in 2013.

The inaugural member for Menzies was Neil Brown, who had held Diamond Valley from 1969 to 1972 and again from 1975 to 1983, having lost the seat with the defeats of Coalition governments on both occasions. Established in the safe new seat of Menzies from 1985, he served as the party’s deputy leader under John Howard from 1985 to 1987. Brown retired in February 1991 and was succeeded by Kevin Andrews, who won the by-election held the following May without opposition from the Labor Party.

Noted for his religious convictions and social conservatism, Andrews came to prominence when he spearheaded a successful push to overturn Northern Territory euthanasia laws in federal parliament. He was promoted to the outer ministry as Ageing Minister after the 2001 election and then to cabinet in October 2003, serving first as Workplace Relations Minister during the introduction of WorkChoices and then as Immigration Minister from January 2007 until the government’s defeat the following November, in which time he was dogged by the Muhamed Haneef affair.

Andrews was dropped from the Coalition front bench after the November 2007 election defeat, but returned as Shadow Families, Housing and Human Services Minister when Tony Abbott became leader in December 2009. He had played a key role in Abbott’s rise to the leadership, having made a tokenistic challenge to Turnbull’s leadership a week earlier in protest against his support for the Rudd government’s emissions trading scheme. Andrews was back in cabinet following the election of Abbott’s government in September 2013 in the role of Social Services Minister, a newly packaged portfolio encompassing aged care, multicultural affairs and settlement services.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

1,188 comments on “Seat of the week: Menzies”

Comments Page 3 of 24
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  2. CTar1@84

    Bemused

    Menzies must have really believed in the Domino Theory otherwise he would have had us sit out Vietnam (ie follow the Brits).

    ON that question, I really do not know. I think he was opportunistic enough to beat the anti-communist drum whenever he could. Don’t forget his bill to dissolve the communist party.

  7. Fulvio Sammut@98

    I’ve just been reading an article in the SMH about corrupt LNP politician Tim Owens.

    His wife is described as a “respected expert in mindfulness”.

    Does anyone have the remotest idea what that means?

    Yes, the latest fad.

  8. Just noticed Tony Abbott has orderd a BMW, correct me if I am wrong but isn’t that the company one of his daughters works for?

  9. “mindfulness” is a relaxation technique known in the past as “centering yourself” or just plain old familiar meditation. All the therapists seem to use it (at least the ones that I met during Ken’s illness).

  10. [102
    bemused

    …I think he (Menzies) was opportunistic enough to beat the anti-communist drum whenever he could. Don’t forget his bill to dissolve the communist party.]

    Menzies also knew that his anti-communist positioning would undermine Labor. It was the wedge politics of the day and it worked spectacularly. Labor was ripped apart by the issue and the left-right divide has still not been fully healed.

  11. Bemused

    [ Don’t forget his bill to dissolve the communist party.]

    And his referendum attempts.

    The Brits sat it out because of what the Septics did during the Suez Crisis – pure payback.

    So Menzies must have been ‘torn’.

  12. lizzie@109

    “mindfulness” is a relaxation technique known in the past as “centering yourself” or just plain old familiar meditation. All the therapists seem to use it (at least the ones that I met during Ken’s illness).

    But you need to dress it up in new highfalutin jargon if you want to sell it all over again! 😆

  13. I find it hard to see how a new urban development near Lake Argyle would do well without sinking a lot of money into it.

    Why not just develop Darwin or Broome? A lot of urban development far from other population centres haven’t done really well. E.g. Brasilia

  14. @lizzie/104

    Yup.

    “requiring flexibility terms in modern awards and enterprise agreements to provide for unilateral termination of individual flexibility arrangements with 13 weeks’ notice;”

    “requiring flexibility terms in enterprise agreements to provide, as a minimum, that individual flexibility arrangements may deal with when work is performed, overtime rates, penalty rates, allowances and leave loading;”

    “confirming that benefits other than an entitlement to a payment of money may be taken into account in determining whether an employee is better off overall under an individual flexibility arrangement and require individual flexibility arrangements to include a statement by the employee setting out why he or she believes that the arrangement meets his or her genuine needs and leaves him or her better off overall at the time of agreeing to the arrangement; and”

    “providing a defence to an alleged contravention of a flexibility term where the employer reasonably believed that the requirements of the term were complied with at the time of agreeing to a particular individual flexibility arrangement.”

    etc etc

    Someone want to tell the Labor Party?

  15. Didn’t Coalition Party accuse Labor Party of moving mothers to Newstart? And is now doing this?

    Retweeted by Richard Chirgwin
    Deb ‏@harrypusspuss 1h

    So now @SenatorAbetz declares war on working mothers by attacking their penalty rates? Are you going to take that Ladies?

  16. CTar1

    Re Santorini, I copied my avatar from a photo my husband took many years ago. One other there of the houses clinging to the cliffs he took too, I was tempted to use it. Santorini is beautiful but too touristy now, loved it about 20 years ago

  17. [104
    lizzie

    FAIR WORK AMENDMENT BILL 2014

    Sally McManus ‏@sallymcmanus 2h
    Abbott is trying 2 sneak parts of #WorkChoices thru the Senate this week! Abbott needs big distractions http://bit.ly/1pRzpTV #insiders]

    Now we will see the true colours of Clive Palmer. Will he combine with Labor and the Greens to thwart this legislation? Or will he align himself with the counter-reformation?

  21. CTarI

    Sue you why?

    Am agreeing with you yes it is slightly different angle.

    Thank you for finding it for me, have sent the link to a friend, who loves the place

  23. mari – No litigious intentions but a little ‘tease’ doesn’t hurt very much!

    As long as people maintain manners it is fun.

  24. Scottish Independence

    If a yes vote happens. What is left of the UK might have to go nuclear free. At minimum it could see the end of Trident.

    Northern Ireland protestants have big Scottish connections. What effect on Northern Ireland would this make?

    Australia. What flag will we choose as the Union Jack ceases to exist?

  26. CTar1@123

    mari – No litigious intentions but a little ‘tease’ doesn’t hurt very much!

    As long as people maintain manners it is fun.

    Yes, you took some getting used to, but I enjoy your posts now.

  27. CTAR 1

    Norty man, I do have a sense of humour, although not as good as usual at the moment. You behave yourself. When are you going back over to UK?? or France??

  28. CTar1@123
    mari – No litigious intentions but a little ‘tease’ doesn’t hurt very much!
    As long as people maintain manners it is fun.

    Yes, you took some getting used to, but I enjoy your posts now

    Taken as a compliment I think and hope 😀

  29. bemused

    [you took some getting used to]

    You shouldn’t expect me to do less any time shortly.

    Lot’s of stuff that doesn’t seem to matter much can go ‘free willy’.

    Other stuff needs tackling outright.

    My compliaments to you and yours on a Sunday Afternoon.

  34. CTar1@129

    bemused

    you took some getting used to


    You shouldn’t expect me to do less any time shortly.

    Lot’s of stuff that doesn’t seem to matter much can go ‘free willy’.

    Other stuff needs tackling outright.

    My compliaments to you and yours on a Sunday Afternoon.

    And all the best to you and yours too.

    I still find an occasional post of yours a tad too obscure so just let them pass.

  37. I noticed the Sunday mail had a story on a QLD father turned Jihad Joe, so the media defiantly helping out the terror plot.

  38. Victoria

    Meant what I said, must be very hard.

    CTAR1 and Bemused , how about leaving me out of whatever you are on about 🙂

  40. http://www.popsci.com.au/science/nature/louisianas-disappearing-coastline-threatens-entire-us-economy,391517

    “As Losing Ground reports, southeastern Louisiana continues to drown at the rate of about one football field an hour, adding up to 16 square miles annually. The wetlands and the species that depend upon them are already failing in many locations and local communities have fallen apart. As well, Southeastern Louisiana supplies much of our domestic wild seafood, and contains “half of the country’s oil refineries, a matrix of pipelines that serve 90 percent of the nation’s offshore energy production and 30 percent of its total oil and gas supply, a port vital to 31 states, and 2 million people who would need to find other places to live.” ”

    Another state IN USA, in much need of billions of dollars due to Climate Change deniers, efforts to ignore the problem and hope it goes away…

  42. mari

    We eventually all have a cross to bear, and sharing our burdens with each other on this blog, really helps.

    Thanks to all

  43. mari@138

    Victoria

    Meant what I said, must be very hard.

    CTAR1 and Bemused , how about leaving me out of whatever you are on about

    You are becoming as mysterious as CTar1.

  45. On Friday evening I came down with perhaps the worst bout of flu I’ve had in a decade. I’ve done all the usual things but let me tell you, it really does remind me how much those of us who are well most of the time take it for granted.

    If I must be sick, sitting here on my lovely sunny verandah is a great comfort. Dragging myself up to the shops to get more panadol and codral however seemed like a marathon.

    I’m hoping I will be well enough for work tomorrow — I hate missing days especially when assessment is fast approaching, I also have a colleague returning tomorrow from a much more serious illness after three weeks away and he is probably going to need a fairly extensive briefing on where his classes are up to. I just hope I’m up to it and don’t infect everyone else.

  50. [His wife is described as a “respected expert in mindfulness”.]

    Mindfulness is a widely used technique in psychiatry and has been shown to significantly reduce relapse rates in major depression and control anxiety disorders.

    It is a useful first line treatment before reaching for the prescription pad.

    It is based on Buddhist techniques and was mainly developed as a mental health measure by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who is incidentally married to Howard Zinn’s daughter.

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