Division of Goldstein


The Division of Goldstein is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria, Australia. The division was created in 1984, when the former Division of Balaclava was abolished. It is located in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne, including Beaumaris, Bentleigh, Brighton, Caulfield South, Cheltenham, Glen Huntly, Elsternwick, Ormond, Gardenvale and Sandringham.

Geography

Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointed by the Australian Electoral Commission. Redistributions occur for the boundaries of divisions in a particular state, and they occur every seven years, or sooner if a state's representation entitlement changes or when divisions of a state are malapportioned.
As a result of a periodical boundary redistribution, from the 2025 Australian federal election, Goldstein's boundaries will move east to include the suburbs of Moorabbin and Bentleigh East and take more of the suburbs of Cheltenham and Highett.

History

The division is named after Vida Goldstein, an early parliamentary candidate who contested five separate elections within the first two decades after Federation. The seat was created in 1984 as a reconfigured version of the Division of Balaclava. Like its predecessor, it was historically a safe seat for the Liberal Party; when combined, the seat is one of very few that has never been held by the Australian [Labor Party|Labor Party] at any point since 1901.
Its most prominent members include Ian Macphee, a minister under Malcolm Fraser and prominent Liberal moderate; and Andrew Robb, a former federal director of the Liberal Party who served as a minister under John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
The long Liberal run in the seat ended in 2022, when teal independent and former ABC News reporter Zoe Daniel defeated Robb's successor, Tim Wilson. The swing against the Liberals was large enough to drop Goldstein down to marginal in a "traditional" two-party matchup with Labor.
The seat was notable in the 2025 election with it bucking the national trend, being the only seat the Liberals gained in the whole country. The seat was regained by Wilson who contested a rematch against Daniel. This marked the first, and as of July 2025 the only time the Liberal Party had defeated an incumbent "teal" independent.