2018 Batman by-election

2018 Batman by-election
← 2016 17 March 2018 2019 →
The Division of Batman (Vic) in the House of Representatives
Registered111,857
Turnout81.40% Decrease 8.28
  First party Second party
 
Candidate Ged Kearney Alex Bhathal
Party Labor Greens
Popular vote 36,840 33,725
Percentage 43.14% 39.49%
Swing Increase 7.87 Increase 3.26
TCP 54.38% 45.62%
TCP swing Increase 3.35 Decrease 3.35
The Division of Batman covered an area of 66 km2 in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. The main suburbs in the seat included Fairfield, Northcote, Preston and Reservoir.
MP before election

David Feeney
Labor

Elected MP

Ged Kearney
Labor

A by-election for the Australian House of Representatives seat of Batman took place on 17 March 2018. The by-election was called as a result of the resignation on 1 February 2018 of the incumbent backbench Australian Labor Party MP, David Feeney, who resigned amid the 2017–18 Australian parliamentary eligibility crisis.

At the 2016 Australian federal election, the Australian Greens had come within 1% of winning the two-candidate preferred vote (TCP). The campaign was therefore primarily a contest between the Labor candidate, former Australian Council of Trade Unions president Ged Kearney, and the Greens candidate, social worker Alex Bhathal, who had run for the seat five times previously. The Liberal Party of Australia declined to run a candidate. The campaign focused heavily on the proposed Adani Carmichael coal mine amongst environmental issues, as well as refugee policy and Labor's proposed reforms to dividend imputation.

Kearney won the seat with a 3.35% swing toward Labor (TCP), for a total of 54.38% of the after-preferences vote. The electorate of Batman was abolished in 2019 and replaced with the Division of Cooper, which Kearney won at the 2019 and 2022 Australian federal elections.