Created 1969 Demographic Inner Metropolitan Area 75 km² Elector 110,010 Party Australian Labor Party | Electors 110,010 (2016) Founded 1969 Member of parliament Clare O'Neil Namesake Charles Hotham | |
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The Division of Hotham is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was created in 1969 and is named for Sir Charles Hotham, Governor of Victoria 1854–55. It is located in the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Hotham covers an area of approximately 72 square kilometres from Oakleigh in the north to Dingley Village in the south. The Division includes the suburbs of Bentleigh East, Clarinda, Dingley Village, Heatherton and Moorabbin in their entirety, and parts of Clayton, Cheltenham, Hughesdale, Murrumbeena, Noble Park, Oakleigh, and Springvale. Hotham is the only electorate in Victoria which does not have either a waterway or a body of water forming any part of its boundary.
The Division was originally created as a safe Liberal seat. However, demographic changes resulted in Labor taking it in 1980. Labor has held it without serious difficulty since then, and the seat is now considered a fairly safe Labor seat. The immediate past member, Simon Crean, was Opposition Leader from 2001 until December 2003 and was in every Labor Cabinet or Shadow Cabinet from June 1991 to March 2013. Crean retired at the 2013 election and was succeeded by fellow Labor member Clare O'Neil.