Victoria Election 2018

Kew

Inner Eastern Suburbs

Safe Liberal 10.6%

Post-Election Margin: Liberal 4.8%

MP

Tim Smith (Liberal) since 2014. Shadow Minister for Education, Shadow Minister for Scrutiny of Government.

Profile

Kew is an inner eastern suburban electorate of 27.8 square kilometres on the southern side of the Yarra River. It includes the suburbs of Kew, Kew East, Deepdene and parts of Balwyn, Balwyn North and Canterbury. (Map)

Background

Kew has been a conservative fiefdom since it was first contested at the 1927 election. Former members include Deputy Premiers Wilfred Kent Hughes (1927-49) and Arthur Rylah (1949-71), former Premier Dick Hamer (1972-81), and former Attorney-General in the Kennett government Jan Wade (1988-99).

Wade was succeeded by Andrew McIntosh, who served as Minister for Corrections and Minister for Crime Prevention in the Baillieu government. McIntosh was forced to resign from the Ministry in April 2013 after admitting he had leaked information on the secret privileges committee investigating Frankston MP Geoff Shaw.

McIntosh did not contest the 2014 election when he was succeeded by Tim Smith. Smith defeated Mary Wooldridge for pre-selection after Wooldridge's seat of Doncaster had been abolished in the redistribution. Wooldridge was instead elected to the Legislative Council at the 2014 election.

Past Election Results

Year Winning Party
1976 LIB
1979 LIB
1981By LIB
1982 LIB
1985 LIB
1988By LIB
1988 LIB
1992 LIB
1996 LIB
1999 LIB
2002 LIB
2006 LIB
2010 LIB
2014 LIB

Coloured tab indicates seat won by a party forming government

Polling Place Results

There were Liberal two-party preferred majorities recorded in all 16 polling places used in 2014, results ranging from 51.5% at Kew East Primary School to 67.9% at the Belle Vue Kindergarten in Balwyn North.

Past Elections

Kew is a safe Liberal seat consistently recording Liberal 2-party preferred votes 10-15 percentage points above the party's state vote.

Kew Results 1985-2014

2018 Ballot Paper (5 Candidates)

Candidate Name Party
MARKS, Alex AUSTRALIAN GREENS
SMITH, Tim LIBERAL
D'ARCY, Marg AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY
SCATURCHIO, Paul SUSTAINABLE AUSTRALIA
GARDINER, Bronwyn ANIMAL JUSTICE PARTY

Candidates

Alex Marks (AUSTRALIAN GREENS)

Alex Marks

AUSTRALIAN GREENS

With degrees from Adelaide and Oxford Universities, Marks has previously worked as a diplomat in South-east Asia, in a social enterprise bringing sanitation to urban settlements in Kenya, and as an environmental engineer in Australia. He now works with a renewable energy startup that is bringing solar power to apartment buildings.

Website

Tim Smith (LIBERAL)

Tim Smith

LIBERAL

Smith grew up in Camberwell and attended Scotch College before completing a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in International Relations at the University of Melbourne and studying at the London School of Economics. He was also a member of the Australian Rowing Team between 2003 and 2006, winning a Bronze medal at the World Championships. Smith has worked on the staff of Liberal MPs, was a senior consultant at a leading Australian professional services firm and was the youngest persons ever to become Mayor of the City of Stonnington. Ahead of the 2014 election, Smith won a hotly contested pre-selection battle for Kew again Minister Mary Wooldridge, whose electorate of Doncaster had been abolished in the redistribution. Despite support from the Premier and party structure, Wooldridge was defeated by Smith who had been working the local numbers for several years. He was elected to parliament in 2014 and is Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Scrutiny of Government.

Website

Marg D'Arcy (AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY)

Marg D'Arcy

AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY

D'Arcy has lived in the local area for four decades. She studied Politics and Spanish at La Trobe University and later completed a Masters in Policy and Law. She coordinated a women's refuge in the 1980s, was on a committee that recommended the introduction of the Crimes Family Violence Act, and established the Family Violence Project office for Victoria Police in 1988-1993 for which she received a Chief Commissioner's certificate. In the 2000s she managed the Royal Women's Hospital's Centre Against Sexual Assault (CASA House) and the statewide Sexual Assault Crisis line. D'Arcy was the Labor candidate for Kooyong at the 2016 Federal election.

Website

Bronwyn Gardiner (ANIMAL JUSTICE PARTY)

Bronwyn Gardiner

ANIMAL JUSTICE PARTY

Website

2014 Result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Lynn Frankes GRN 6,433 16.3 +1.9
Tim Smith LIB 22,552 57.2 -3.4
James Matthew Gaffey ALP 10,448 26.5 +3.2
.... OTH 0 0.0 -1.8
After Preferences
Tim Smith LIB 23,899 60.6 -5.0
James Matthew Gaffey ALP 15,510 39.4 +5.0