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Division of Kooyong

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Division of Kooyong

The Division of Kooyong (/kjɒŋ/) is an electoral division for the Australian House of Representatives in the state of Victoria, which covers an area of approximately 59 km2 (23 mi2) in the inner-east of Melbourne. It contains the suburbs of Armadale, Canterbury, Deepdene, Hawthorn, Hawthorn East, Kew, Kew East, Kooyong, Malvern and Toorak, as well as parts of Balwyn, Balwyn North, Camberwell, Glen Iris, Malvern East, Prahran, Surrey Hills and Mont Albert North

At the 2022 election, teal independent Monique Ryan became the member for the electorate, unseating former Liberal deputy leader and federal treasurer, Josh Frydenberg. It was the first time since Federation that the seat had not been held by the Liberal Party or its predecessors. Ryan was the first woman to hold the seat, as well as the first person to unseat an incumbent in Kooyong since 1922.

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they take place every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes, or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.

The 2021 Census found that 64% of Kooyong constituents were born in Australia, with 8.4% being born in China. 44.8% of people stated they were not religious, with the next most common responses being Catholic (19.6%), and Anglican (7.9%). At the time of the 2022 Australian federal election, over 11% of Kooyong's population had Chinese ancestry.

The division was proclaimed in 1900, and was one of the original 65 divisions to be contested at the first Federal election. It was named after the suburb of Kooyong, which it originally included. The name derives from an Aboriginal word for camp or resting place. The electorate has not always included the suburb of Kooyong or its namesake tennis stadium, although they were re-included in the electorate boundaries for the 2025 federal election.

Kooyong was held by the Liberal Party of Australia and its conservative predecessors for the first 121 years of its existence, apart from 1921 to 1925, when John Latham successfully ran as a "Liberal", mainly on the platform of removing Billy Hughes as prime minister. With Hughes' resignation in 1923, Latham joined the governing Nationalist Party, and remained a member till his resignation from the seat and his elevation to the High Court. It is one of two original electorates in Victoria to have never been won by the Australian Labor Party, the other being Gippsland.

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 Latham, Menzies, and former Opposition Leader Andrew Peacock.

For decades, it was one of the safest Liberal-National coalition seats in metropolitan Australia. Even during Labor's landslide victory in 1943, Menzies won comfortably with 62.5 percent of the two-party-preferred vote.

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