Division of Flinders

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Flinders Australian House of Representatives Division
State or territory:	Victoria
Created:	1901
MP:	Greg Hunt
Party:	Liberal
Namesake:	Matthew Flinders
Electors:	95,608
Area:	1,955 km² (754.8 sq mi)
Demographic:	Rural

The Division of Flinders is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1900 and was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election. It is named for Matthew Flinders, the first man to circumnavigate Australia, and the person credited with giving Australia her name.

Originally a country seat south and east of Melbourne, Flinders has been gradually cut back to the outer southern suburbs on the Mornington Peninsula, including Dromana, Hastings and Portsea.

It has usually been a fairly safe seat for the Liberal Party and its predecessors, but has occasionally been won by the Australian Labor Party, most famously in 1929 when Prime Minister Stanley Bruce was defeated. This was the first time an Australian Prime Minister has lost his own seat at a general election. (The only other such instance was the defeat of Liberal Prime Minister John Howard in his seat of Bennelong, also by Labor, in the Federal Election of November 24, 2007.)

Other prominent members include Sir Phillip Lynch, a Cabinet minister in the Fraser government, and Peter Reith, a senior minister in the Howard government. As well as holding Flinders, both Lynch and Reith had served a stint as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party.

[edit] Members

Member		Party	Term
	Arthur Groom	Free Trade	1901—1903
	James Gibb	Free Trade, Anti-Socialist	1903—1906
	William Irvine	Anti-Socialist	1906—1909
		Commonwealth Liberal	1909—1916
		Nationalist	1916—1918
	Stanley Bruce	Nationalist	1918—1929
	Ted Holloway	Labor	1929—1931
	Stanley Bruce	United Australia	1931—1933
	James Fairbairn	United Australia	1933—1940
	Rupert Ryan	United Australia	1940—1944
		Liberal	1944—1952
	Keith Ewert	Labor	1952—1954
	Robert Lindsay	Liberal	1954—1966
	Phillip Lynch	Liberal	1966—1982
	Peter Reith	Liberal	1982—1983
	Robert Chynoweth	Labor	1983—1984
	Peter Reith	Liberal	1984—2001
	Greg Hunt	Liberal	2001—present

[edit] Election results

Australian federal election, 2007: Flinders
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Greg Hunt	48,343	54.47	-3.70
	Labor	Gary March	30,073	33.88	+2.99
	Greens	Bob Brown	7,529	8.48	+2.21
	Family First	Cameron Eastman	1,988	2.24	+0.51
	Democrats	David Batten	822	0.93	+0.07
Total formal votes			88,755	97.22	+1.56
Informal votes			2,538	2.78	-1.56
Turnout			91,293	95.49	+0.19
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Liberal	Greg Hunt	51,697	58.25	-2.86
	Labor	Gary March	37,058	41.75	+2.86
	Liberal hold		Swing	-2.86

Australian federal election, 2004: Flinders
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Greg Hunt	48,249	58.17	+6.65
	Labor	Simon Napthine	25,621	30.89	-2.05
	Greens	Stuart Kingsford	5,204	6.27	+0.39
	Family First	Dean Johnstone	1,435	1.73	+1.73
	Independent	Paul Madigan	1,043	1.26	+1.26
	Democrats	Bruce Errol	715	0.86	-4.74
	Independent	Neale Adams	503	0.61	+0.61
	Citizens Electoral Council	Henry Broadbent	174	0.21	+0.21
Total formal votes			82,944	95.66	-0.56
Informal votes			3,765	4.34	+0.56
Turnout			86,709	95.30	-0.32
Two Candidate Preferred Result
	Liberal	Greg Hunt	50,689	61.11	+3.67
	Labor	Simon Napthine	32,255	38.89	-3.67
	Liberal hold		Swing	+3.67

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