It lies within the Southern Metropolitan Region of the upper house, the Legislative Council.

[1] Bentleigh has usually been seen as a key marginal seat, lying at the 'point of the pendulum' needed to change government.

Following this, the seat was narrowly held by Inga Peulich until she was defeated by Rob Hudson in the 2002 election.

In the 2010 election the seat returned to the Liberal Party with Elizabeth Miller narrowly defeating Hudson.

Staikos picked up a hefty swing of over 11 percent in Labor's landslide victory of 2018, and was comfortably re-elected in 2022, with a margin of 8%.