| Melbourne Ports AustralianHouse of RepresentativesDivision | |
|---|---|
 Division of Melbourne Ports inVictoria, as of the2016 federal election | |
| Created | 1901 |
| Abolished | 2019 |
| Namesake | Port Melbourne |
| Electors | 102,283 (2016) |
| Area | 40 km2 (15.4 sq mi) |
| Demographic | Inner metropolitan |
TheDivision of Melbourne Ports was anAustralian federal electoral division in the inner south-eastern suburbs ofMelbourne,Victoria, Australia. It was located to the south of Melbourne's central business district and covered an area of approximately 40 km2 around the north and north-eastern shores ofPort Phillip Bay.
Theelectorate was created at the time ofAustralian Federation in 1901 and was one of theoriginal 65 divisions contested at thefirst federal election. It is named for the fact that, at the time of its creation, it was centred onPort Melbourne andWilliamstown, both major ports.
The electorate, formerly working class, was much more demographically diverse on its final boundaries, with rapidly accelerating inner-city gentrification and high-density housing developments in later years. It included Port Melbourne, but also included a number of middle and upper middle class suburbs such asAlbert Park,Balaclava,Caulfield,Elwood,Middle Park,Ripponlea,South Melbourne andSt Kilda. It was notable for having one of Australia's larger Jewish populations, at 9.9%, much higher than the nationwide 0.4%. It also had a high proportion of atheists and agnostics, with 38.8% of residents answering "No Religion" in the 2016 census, compared to 30.1% nationwide.[1] It also had a largegay and lesbian community.
Melbourne Ports was held by theAustralian Labor Party from1906 until 2019, when it was renamed. During this period it was held by only five members, all men, most notablyJack Holloway, a minister who served underJohn Curtin andBen Chifley;Frank Crean,Treasurer and thenDeputy Prime Minister in theWhitlam government; andClyde Holding, a minister in theHawke government who prior to switching to federal politics had served asVictorian Opposition Leader from 1967 to 1977.
Originally, it was anchored in the industrial suburbs in the west of the electorate, which are part of Labor's heartland in west Melbourne. On those boundaries, for decades it was one of the safest Labor seats in the country, and Labor usually easily retained it even when Labor was heavily defeated nationally. The only times Labor's hold on the seat was even remotely threatened during this era came in1975 and1977; even then, Labor's primary vote was enough to retain the seat outright.
After it was extended eastwards to Caulfield and otherLiberal-voting areas in the 1990 redistribution, it became much less secure for Labor. Continuing the gradual downwards trend in the Labor primary vote, in the2013 election, Labor was returned with a primary vote of less than 32 percent. In2016, Labor actually suffered a primary vote swing of four percent and a two-party swing of two percent even as it nearly reduced the Coalition to minority government nationally.
In 2018, the Australian Electoral Commission proposed renaming Melbourne Ports asMacnamara, after medical scientistDame Jean Macnamara.[2] The new name was gazetted on 13 July 2018, and was first used at the2019 federal election.[3]
| Image | Member | Party | Term | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
.jpg) | Samuel Mauger (1857–1936) | Protectionist | 29 March 1901 – 12 December 1906 | Previously held theVictorian Legislative Assembly seat ofFootscray. Transferred to the Division ofMaribyrnong | |
 | James Mathews (1865–1934) | Labor | 12 December 1906 – 27 November 1931 | Retired | |
 | Jack Holloway (1875–1967) | 19 December 1931 – 19 March 1951 | Previously held the Division ofFlinders. Served as minister underCurtin,Forde andChifley. Retired | ||
.jpg) | Frank Crean (1916–2008) | 28 April 1951 – 10 November 1977 | Previously held theVictorian Legislative Assembly seat ofPrahran. Served as minister andDeputy Prime Minister underWhitlam. Retired | ||
.jpg) | Clyde Holding (1931–2011) | 10 December 1977 – 31 August 1998 | Previously held theVictorian Legislative Assembly seat ofRichmond. Served as minister underHawke. Retired | ||
 | Michael Danby (1955–) | 3 October 1998 – 11 April 2019 | Retired after Melbourne Ports was abolished in 2019 |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Owen Guest | 35,533 | 41.90 | +0.85 | |
| Labor | Michael Danby | 22,897 | 27.00 | −4.67 | |
| Greens | Steph Hodgins-May | 20,179 | 23.79 | +3.62 | |
| Animal Justice | Robert Smyth | 1,685 | 1.99 | +1.99 | |
| Independent | Peter Holland | 1,393 | 1.64 | +1.64 | |
| Marriage Equality | Henry von Doussa | 1,349 | 1.59 | +1.59 | |
| Drug Law Reform | Levi McKenzie-Kirkbright | 1,348 | 1.59 | +1.59 | |
| Independent | John Myers | 425 | 0.50 | +0.50 | |
| Total formal votes | 84,809 | 95.76 | −0.42 | ||
| Informal votes | 3,756 | 4.24 | +0.42 | ||
| Turnout | 88,565 | 86.59 | −3.45 | ||
| Two-party-preferred result | |||||
| Labor | Michael Danby | 43,573 | 51.38 | −2.18 | |
| Liberal | Owen Guest | 41,236 | 48.62 | +2.18 | |
| Laborhold | Swing | −2.18 | |||
37°51′22″S144°58′34″E / 37.856°S 144.976°E /-37.856; 144.976