Muslim Votes Matter softens anti-Labor stance ahead of Victorian election
Muslim Votes Matter softens anti-Labor stance ahead of Victorian election
Muslim Votes Matter plans to direct its supporters to vote for Labor ahead of One Nation in every Victorian lower house electorate at the state election on 28 November 2026, The Guardian reported. The shift is a softening of the group's position. At the 2025 federal election, it focused on endorsing Greens and independent candidates to punish Labor over anger at the federal government's handling of Israel's war in Gaza.
The group, whose national spokesperson is Ghaith Krayem, aims to increase Australian Muslims' participation and inclusion in democracy, according to SBS. Its how-to-vote cards, the printed lists that tell voters how to rank candidates, will not put Labor in the top spot in any seat. They will favour independents and minor parties instead. Where Liberal preferences could flow to One Nation, the group plans to preference Labor over the Liberal Party. Preferences are the numbered order in which voters rank candidates, and they decide where a vote goes when a candidate is excluded.
The focus is on seats the group considers at risk. Volunteers aim to be on the ground in Greenvale and Narre Warren South, amid fears that One Nation could take them. Both are held by Labor on a two-party-preferred margin, meaning the gap between the two leading candidates once preferences are counted. Labor's margin in Greenvale is 7.1 per cent, and in Narre Warren South it is 8.3 per cent. Greenvale was created before the 2022 election.
Muslim residents make up a larger share of the population in Narre Warren South than across the state. According to 2021 census data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 13.1 per cent of the electorate's residents are Muslim, compared with 4.2 per cent statewide. The group also plans to have volunteers in Tarneit, where the same census counted 14.6 per cent of residents as Muslim, according to the Bureau's figures. Labor holds Tarneit on a 12.3 per cent margin.
The pressure on Labor from within these communities is not new this campaign. The Australian has reported that Muslim voters are being lobbied to abandon Labor in its outer suburban strongholds.
