Created 1949 Electors 104,615 (2016) Area 40 km² Member of parliament Kelly O'Dwyer Namesake H. B. Higgins | MP Kelly O'Dwyer Demographic Inner Metropolitan Founded 1949 Elector 104,615 | |
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Party Liberal Party of Australia | ||
The Division of Higgins is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria.
The division was created in 1949 and is named after Justice H. B. Higgins (1851–1929), who was a Member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly (1894), president of the Carlton Football Club (1904), a founding Member of Australian House of Representatives (1901–1906) and Justice of the High Court of Australia (1906–1929).
Higgins covers 40 km2 (15 sq mi) in Melbourne's south-eastern suburbs. The main suburbs include Armadale, Ashburton, Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern East, Prahran and Toorak along with parts of Carnegie, Glen Iris, Hughesdale, Murrumbeena, South Yarra and Windsor.
Like other seats in inner-eastern Melbourne, Higgins has historically been a stronghold for the Liberal Party and its predecessors. It is considered a "leadership seat," in part because the seat's first two members, Harold Holt and Sir John Gorton, were Prime Ministers of Australia in 1966–67 and 1968–71 respectively. Higgins is the only Division to have been held by two Prime Ministers. This occurred when Holt went missing while Prime Minister, and then-Senator Gorton used the ensuing by-election to transfer to the House.
More recently, the seat was held by the longest serving Treasurer of Australia and former Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, Peter Costello, who was a prominent member of the Howard Government. Costello resigned from the seat on 19 October 2009, and was succeeded in the ensuing by-election by current member Kelly O'Dwyer.
Holt and Costello were also Treasurers during their respective tenure in Higgins and the current member Kelly O'Dwyer is the current Assistant Treasurer.