Division of Kooyong

The Division of Kooyong is an Australian Electoral Division in the state of Victoria. The Division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 75 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. It covers an area of approximately 52 km² (20 sq mi) in the inner-east suburbs of Melbourne. It is named after the suburb of Kooyong, on which it was originally based. However, Kooyong has not been in its namesake electorate for some time, being instead in neighbouring Higgins. Nonetheless, the seat has retained the name of Kooyong, primarily because the Australian Electoral Commission's guidelines on electoral redistributions require it to preserve the names of original electorates where possible.

It is currently based on Kew, and also includes Balwyn, Camberwell, Canterbury, Hawthorn and parts of Surrey Hills.

Kooyong has been held by the Liberal Party of Australia and its predecessors for its entire existence. It is one of two original electorates in Victoria to have never been won by the Australian Labor Party, the other being Gippsland. For decades, it has been one of the safest Coalition seats in metropolitan Australia; Labor presently needs an 11-point swing to win it.

The seat's best-known member was Sir Robert Menzies, the longest-serving Prime Minister of Australia. From 1922 to 1994, it was held by only three members, all of whom went on to lead the non-Labor forces in Parliament--former Opposition Leader and future Chief Justice John Latham, Menzies, and former Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.

In the 1990 election, comedian Tim Ferguson of the Doug Anthony All Stars stood as an independent candidate for Kooyong against Peacock, gaining 3.7% of the vote.

Peacock's successor, high-profile Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou, saw off a challenge from Josh Frydenberg for Liberal Party preselection in April 2006. On 22 November 2008, Georgiou announced his retirement at the next federal election. Frydenberg won preselection as the Liberal Party's candidate for the seat for the 2010 election, and won despite a small swing against him.