The Vic MPs who live in upmarket suburbs a long way from their constituents

These Victorian Labor MPs live in neighbourhoods that are a long way from those of their constituents, both geographically and demographically.

Victorian Labor MP Luba Grigorovitch’s marriage to the owner of Australia’s largest private equity firm, Ben Gray, at their $30m mansion in Sorrento last January. Picture: APL Photography

More than a third of Victorian Labor MPs do not live in their electorates, with a significant number, including four ministers, choosing to live in up-market suburbs miles from their constituents.

At least 20 of 56 Labor MPs in the lower house, and five of 15 in the upper house, live outside their electorates, according to The Australian’s analysis of the state parliamentary register of members’ interests and other publicly available information.

This compares with four of 27 Liberals in the Legislative ­Assembly and two of 11 in the Legislative Council.

All Nationals and Greens in both houses live in their electorates.

While some of those living outside their seats are only one or two suburbs away – in some cases due to electoral redistributions – several high-profile MPs, predominantly on the Labor side, live in neighbourhoods that are a long way from those of their constituents, both geographically and demographically.

Treasurer Tim Pallas lives in beachside Williamstown, where the median property price is $1.65m — more than $1m higher than the $610,000 required to buy an average house in his seat of Werribee, 23km away.

Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas lives in beachside Williamstown despite representing Werribee. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui

Minister for Climate Action, Energy, Resources and the State Electricity Commission, Lily D’Ambrosio, lives in trendy inner-city Brunswick while representing working class Mill Park – a 20km drive away.

Natalie Hutchins, the Minister for Jobs and Industry, Treaty and First Peoples, and Women, lives in Essendon, where an average house sells for $1.78m, compared with $740,000 in her outer northwestern Melbourne seat of Sydenham, 17km away.

While Minister for Government Services, Consumer Affairs and Public Transport Gabrielle Williams used to live in her outer southeastern suburban seat of Dandenong, she sold up last year in order to buy a house in the leafy eastern suburb of Surrey Hills (median price $2.4m).

Ms Williams said her move was “temporary” and prompted by the birth last year of her son, Ruairi.

“I moved out of the electorate just before my son was born to move across the road from my parents to get the help I needed to be able to continue working full time,” said the minister, who has previously spoken publicly about enduring more than five years of IVF treatment and multiple miscarriages in her battle to become a mother.

“As a single mum, it was the most practical thing I could do to ensure I could still meet the needs and expectations of my constituency. I plan to return to Dandenong when Ruairi is at school.”

While many may have sympathy for Ms Williams’ situation, it leaves those in her seat whose addresses overlap with that of federal ­Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus without an MP at a state or federal level who lives closer than 25km away, given Mr Dreyfus has never felt the need to move from inner-eastern Malvern, where the median house price of $3m compares with $680,000 in Dandenong.

Among parliamentary secretaries and backbenchers, Melton MP Steve McGhie lives in charming rural Buninyong, 78km from the outer suburban growth corridor his constituents inhabit, and the MPs for both Narre Warren South and Narre Warren North live more than 35km from their southeastern suburban seats, with Gary Maas opting for St Kilda and Belinda Wilson Black Rock.

Luba Grigorovitch may have been brought up by a single mother in the western suburbs, but the South Yarra home and $30m ­Sorrento mansion she now shares with husband and owner of Australia’s largest private equity firm, Ben Gray, are a world away from her electorate office in Caroline Springs, where the median house price is $730,000.

In the upper house, Tom McIntosh represents Eastern Victoria from his home in the inner-northern Melbourne suburb of Northcote, and constituents in Southern Metropolitan are represented by John Berger, who lives in Teesdale, west of Geelong, and Ryan Batchelor, who’s in Clifton Hill, in the inner north.

A government spokeswoman said: “Every member of the Allan Labor government is a passionate representative for their area.”