Hawthorn

Hawthorn covers 21.01 square kilometres from the Yarra River at Hawthorn east to Warrigal Road at Camberwell. It takes in Hawthorn, Hawthorn East and Camberwell in whole, 58.5 per cent of the gazetted locality of Canterbury, shared with Kew, and 43.6 per cent of Surrey Hills, shared with Box Hill and Kew.

Enrolment stood at 51,502 in September 2026, up 1,422, or 2.8 per cent, on the 50,080 electors at the 2022 close of rolls. The district adjoins Kew to the north, Box Hill to the north-east, Ashwood to the south-east, Malvern to the south and Richmond across the Yarra to the west. At the 2021 Census its localities held 68,914 people on an area-weighted estimate, 17.8 per cent of them aged 65 and over, with 35.2 per cent of occupied dwellings rented and 29.9 per cent of residents born overseas.

John Pesutto has been the member for Hawthorn since 26 November 2022, when he won the seat for the Liberal Party from Labor's John Kennedy, who had won it from him in 2018. He first held Hawthorn from 29 November 2014 to 23 November 2018. He was Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party from 8 December 2022 to 27 December 2024, and Leader of the Liberal and Nationals Coalition from 18 December 2022 to 27 December 2024. He has been Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee since 16 February 2026, and his inaugural speech was on 23 December 2014. There has been no change of party and no vacancy in Hawthorn since the 2022 election, as at 17 October 2026. His record is on his Parliament of Victoria profile, as at 26 October 2026.

Eight candidates stood on 26 November 2022. Pesutto polled 18,728 first preferences, 42.3 per cent, Kennedy 9,799, 22.1 per cent, the independent Melissa Lowe 8,851, 20.0 per cent, and Nick Savage of the Greens 4,927, 11.1 per cent. Of 45,488 votes cast by 90.8 per cent of the 50,080 electors enrolled, 1,178 were informal, 2.6 per cent.

The count ran to six exclusions and ended Liberal against Labor. The Greens' 5,284 votes, excluded fifth, went 2,837 to Lowe, 53.7 per cent, and 1,956 to Kennedy, 37.0 per cent, leaving Kennedy on 12,164 and Lowe on 12,058, so Lowe was excluded last. Her 12,058 votes split 9,219 to Kennedy, 76.5 per cent, and 2,839 to Pesutto, 23.5 per cent. The final count was 22,927 to 21,383, 51.7 to 48.3 per cent, a Liberal margin of 1.7 points; a shift of 773 votes at that last exclusion would have reversed it. Against the Commission's estimate of the 2018 vote on the 2021 boundaries, Labor 50.6 per cent, the result was a swing of 2.3 points to the Liberal Party, and against the 2018 result on the old boundaries, Labor 50.42, 2.2 points.

The Commission's indicative two-candidate count by voting centre paired Pesutto against Lowe, so the shares here are Pesutto's against Lowe; that count ended 22,855 to 21,557, 51.5 to 48.5 per cent, of 44,412 formal votes. Of those, 21,332, or 48.0 per cent, were cast early, and they split 52.4 per cent to Pesutto, a lead of 1,028 votes. Postal votes, 11.6 per cent of the count, split 58.9 per cent to Pesutto, a lead of 920. Election-day votes, 34.6 per cent of the count, split 52.8 per cent to Lowe, a lead of 859; the postal lead alone exceeded it, so Pesutto led the count without the early vote.

Lowe led at thirteen of the 20 voting centres and Pesutto at seven. Pesutto's strongest were the small Kooyong booth, at 70.0 per cent of 90 votes, Canterbury at 63.9 of 61, and Camberwell South at 57.9. Lowe's strongest were Glenferrie at 61.7 per cent, Surrey Hills at 60.8 of 79 votes and Burwood Central at 59.1 of 93. Lowe led at the Auburn booth and at every voting centre west of it except Kooyong, and at both Surrey Hills booths on the eastern edge. Five of Pesutto's seven, Auburn South, Kooyong, Highfield, Willison and Camberwell South, lie south of the Camberwell booth; of the voting centres there, Lowe led only at Hartwell and Burwood Central.

Hawthorn returned Liberal members from 1964 to 2018, a Labor member in 2018 and a Liberal member in 2022. In 2010 Ted Baillieu won 60.9 per cent of first preferences and 66.7 per cent of the indicative two-candidate count, a margin of 16.7 points. The Electoral Boundaries Commission redrew the district in 2013, and in 2014 Pesutto won it with 54.5 per cent of first preferences and 58.6 per cent of the indicative two-candidate count, a margin of 8.6 points. In 2018 Kennedy won it for Labor with 50.42 per cent after the distribution of preferences, a margin of 0.42 points.

The 2021 redivision added electors to a district that stood 6.95 per cent below the enrolment quota at 30 November 2020. The Commission moved the eastern boundary from Highfield Road to Warrigal Road, bringing 6,934 electors in from Burwood District, and moved the boundary with Box Hill District from Canterbury Road to Mont Albert Road, adding 2,019 electors in parts of Canterbury and Surrey Hills, with a further 234 in Surrey Hills added in the final boundaries. Hawthorn gave up part of Glen Iris, 4,646 electors, to the renamed Ashwood District, and held 49,787 electors at 30 November 2020, 2.39 per cent above the average. The Commission estimated the 2018 vote on the new boundaries at 50.6 per cent to Labor and 49.4 to the Coalition, a notional Labor margin of 0.6 points. There has been no by-election since 2022.

Hawthorn is the second rung on the Coalition side of the Assembly pendulum, with the second-smallest margin of the 23 seats the Coalition holds against Labor, 1.7 points, in the under-2 band. A uniform two-party swing to Labor of more than 1.7 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, so the implied uniform swing is 9.0 points to the Coalition. At that swing the Liberal Party's 2022 share in Hawthorn rises from 51.7 to 60.7 per cent, and the 25 seats the average reaches are all on the Labor side of the pendulum. Every poll in the average is on the Victorian election polls tracker, and the leaders' ratings are on the Ben Carroll approval and Jess Wilson approval pages.

In 2022 the count turned on Lowe's 12,058 last-exclusion votes, which went 76.5 per cent to Kennedy and 23.5 to Pesutto.

Hawthorn 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 indicative two-candidate-preferred count by voting centre. Members are from the Parliament of Victoria as at 17 October 2026 and enrolment 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, and the 2021 redivision is described in the Electoral Boundaries Commission's report. The polls' average is the Victorian election 2026 hub's register, updated 26 October 2026.