The electorate has been held by the Liberal Party (or its predecessor) since its creation in 1945, and for most of that time has been regarded as one of the Liberal Party's safest seats in Melbourne.

In all but one election, the Liberals have won enough votes on the first count to win the seat outright.

As a measure of how safe Malvern is for the Liberals, Opposition Leader Robert Doyle easily retained the seat with 60.2 percent of the two-party vote even as Labor won its biggest majority ever at the state level.

The current member is Michael O'Brien, who succeeded Doyle at the 2006 Victorian election and served as Treasurer in the Napthine government.

[2] The seat's best-known member was Lindsay Thompson, who served as Premier of Victoria from 1981 to 1982 and served as a minister without interruption from 1958 to 1982 – one of the longest-serving state ministers in Australian history.