Caulfield

Caulfield covers 17.35 square kilometres in Melbourne's inner south-east. Caulfield, Caulfield North, Caulfield South and Caulfield East lie at its centre and eastern side, Elsternwick, Gardenvale and Ripponlea on its western side, Balaclava and 72.3 per cent of the gazetted locality of St Kilda East, shared with Prahran, in its north-western corner, and Glen Huntly and 28.8 per cent of Ormond, shared with Bentleigh and Oakleigh, at its south-eastern end.

Enrolment stood at 50,730 in September 2026, up 2,238, or 4.6 per cent, on the 48,492 electors of 2022. The district adjoins Prahran to the north-west, Malvern to the north-east, Oakleigh to the east, Bentleigh to the south-east and Brighton to the south-west. At the 2021 Census its localities held 71,348 people on an area-weighted estimate, 16.5 per cent aged 65 and over and 35.6 per cent born outside Australia, and 39.5 per cent of occupied dwellings were rented.

David Southwick has been the member for Caulfield since 27 November 2010, sitting for the Liberal Party throughout. He has been Deputy Leader of the Opposition and of the Liberal Party since 28 January 2026, having held the party post from 7 September 2021 and the Opposition post from 18 December 2022, both to 27 December 2024. He has been Shadow Minister for Planning and Shadow Minister for Housing and Building since 30 November 2025 and Shadow Minister for Tourism and Major Events since 6 January 2026. His inaugural speech was on 8 February 2011. There has been no change of party and no vacancy in Caulfield since 2022. He is the member and his party is of record as at 17 October 2026; his Parliament of Victoria profile was read on 26 October 2026.

Seven candidates stood on 26 November 2022. Southwick polled 18,088 first preferences, 44.5 per cent, and Lior Harel of Labor 11,301, 27.8 per cent. Rachel Iampolski of the Greens polled 6,447, 15.8 per cent, and the independent Nomi Kaltmann 2,643, 6.5 per cent. Of 42,057 votes cast by 86.7 per cent of the 48,492 electors enrolled, 1,374 were informal, 3.3 per cent.

The count ran to five exclusions. Kaltmann's 3,067 votes at the fourth split 1,476 to Iampolski, 48.1 per cent, 939 to Harel and 652 to Southwick. Iampolski was excluded last with 8,491 votes: 7,009 of them, 82.5 per cent, went to Harel and 1,482, 17.5 per cent, to Southwick. The final count was 21,183 to 19,500, 52.1 to 47.9 per cent, a Liberal margin of 2.1 points; a shift of 842 votes at that last exclusion would have reversed it. Against the Commission's estimate of the 2018 vote on the 2021 boundaries, Labor 50.2 per cent, the result was a swing of 2.3 points to the Liberal Party; against the 2018 result on the old boundaries, Labor 49.73, it was 1.8 points to the Liberal Party.

Postal and early votes carried the count. Of the 42,090 votes in the two-candidate count, 7,223, or 17.2 per cent, were postal, and they split 67.8 to 32.2 for the Liberal Party, a lead of 2,502 votes. The 19,643 early votes, 46.7 per cent of the total, split 53.1 to the Liberal Party, a lead of 1,199. The 12,272 election-day votes split 56.0 per cent to Labor, a lead of 1,414, and absent votes, 6.5 per cent of the total, split 61.5 to Labor, a lead of 606.

The Liberal Party led at five of the 15 voting centres, with Bundeera at 56.6 per cent of the two-candidate vote, Caulfield North at 55.4 and Glen Eira at 54.8 its strongest. Labor led at the other ten: St Kilda, where the Liberal Party polled 27.8 per cent, Ripponlea East at 28.6 and Glenhuntly East at 31.7, then Ormond, Alma, Elsternwick North, Caulfield Upper, Elsternwick, Caulfield East and Caulfield West. On the venues' coordinates, the five Liberal-led centres lie in a band through the middle of the district from Caulfield North south to Bundeera, a band that also holds Labor-led Caulfield Upper; Labor's three strongest are its three westernmost centres, and Glenhuntly East and Ormond its two easternmost.

Caulfield has returned a Liberal member at every election since 1979 and an Independent Liberal from 1977 to 1979. In 2010 David Southwick won 57.8 per cent of first preferences, an absolute majority, and 61.5 per cent on the indicative two-candidate count, a margin of 11.5 points. In 2014, on boundaries redrawn in 2013, Southwick again won on first preferences, 51.7 per cent, a margin of 4.9 points on the indicative count. In 2018 his first preferences fell to 46.9 per cent and the distribution of preferences gave him 50.27 per cent against Sorina Grasso of Labor, a margin of 0.27 points.

The 2021 redivision made one change. Caulfield stood 6.09 per cent below the average district enrolment on 30 November 2020, with 45,664 electors against an average of 48,625, and the Commission kept its boundaries with a single adjustment against Prahran. It moved 3,244 electors in part of St Kilda East from Prahran into Caulfield and 802 electors the other way, leaving the district with 48,106 electors, 1.07 per cent below the average; the final boundaries kept that proposal. The Commission estimated the 2018 vote on the new boundaries at 50.2 per cent to Labor and 49.8 to the Liberal and National parties, a notional Labor margin of 0.2 points, so the seat was notionally Labor going into 2022, and the 2022 result returned it to the Liberal Party. There has been no by-election since 2022.

Caulfield is the fourth rung on the Coalition side of the Assembly pendulum, among the 23 seats the Coalition holds against Labor, with a margin of 2.1 points in the 2 to 6 band; a uniform two-party swing to Labor of more than 2.1 points changes the seat. The polls' average since the change of Premier stood at 54.0 to 46.0 to the Coalition on 26 October 2026, from ten polls, against a 2022 statewide result of 55.0 to 45.0 to Labor, an implied uniform swing of 9.0 points to the Coalition. At that swing the Liberal share in Caulfield rises from 52.1 to 61.1 per cent, and the 25 seats the average reaches are all Labor-held, so Caulfield is not among them. Every poll in the average is on the Victorian election polls tracker, and the leaders' ratings on the pages for Ben Carroll's approval rating and Jess Wilson's approval rating.

In 2022 the count turned on the Greens' 8,491 last-exclusion votes, which went 82.5 per cent to Labor, and on the postal and early votes, where the Liberal Party led by 2,502 and 1,199 against Labor's leads of 1,414 at the election-day booths and 606 on absent votes.

Caulfield is one of the eleven districts of Southern Metropolitan Region, which elects five members of the Legislative Council. In 2022 the quota was 78,309 votes, and the members elected, in order, were David Davis (Liberal), John Berger (Labor), Georgie Crozier (Liberal), Katherine Copsey (Greens) and Ryan Batchelor (Labor). All five sit as at 17 October 2026. The region is set out in the Council section of the hub.

Results, enrolment, boundaries and the timetable are from the Victorian Electoral Commission; the 2022 result is its distribution of preferences and the booth shares its two-candidate-preferred count by voting centre. Members and parties are from the Parliament of Victoria as at 17 October 2026, with the member's profile read on 26 October 2026; enrolment is as at September 2026. Boundaries, localities and postcodes are Vicmap Admin, © State of Victoria, CC BY 4.0, matched to the district by area. Population figures are the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census, area-weighted by locality. The polls' average is the Victorian election 2026 hub's register, updated 26 October 2026.