Victorian Greens Confirm Preference Plan Ahead of 28 November Election
The Victorian Greens have confirmed they will direct voters to put One Nation last in every electorate across the state ahead of the 28 November state election. In 15 electorates, the party will also direct voters to number the Greens first and One Nation last, without directing preferences to Labor, according to The Guardian.
Preferences are the numbers voters write beside candidates after their first choice, indicating the order in which they would like their vote to pass on. Parties often tell supporters how to use them, and those instructions can matter most in close seats.
The 15 electorates are Albert Park, Ashwood, Bellarine, Bendigo East, Bendigo West, Essendon, Euroa, Gippsland East, Mildura, Mornington, Point Cook, Polwarth, South Barwon, Tarneit and Werribee. The Greens are led by Ellen Sandell.
Labor's response has been sharp. A Labor spokesperson accused the Greens of doing a dodgy deal to help elect a Liberal One Nation government. The Greens, for their part, have said they will put One Nation last in every electorate across Victoria.
Labor has taken a different approach in Prahran, an inner Melbourne seat. It has decided to run an open ticket there, which means it is not telling supporters how to order their preferences. The Liberal Party holds Prahran by a margin of 1.3 per cent, the gap between the top two candidates, after the Greens lost the seat at a byelection, a vote held to fill a vacancy between general elections, in 2025.
Pollster Tony Barry has put a figure on how Greens preferences may move. He said about 85 per cent of exhausted Greens votes, meaning ballots that no longer count toward any remaining candidate, flow to Labor, and about 15 per cent leak to the Coalition, the alliance of the Liberal and National parties.
Several seats have also changed hands in personnel. The two Bendigo seats were vacated by former premier Jacinta Allan and by speaker Maree Edwards, who presides over the lower house of parliament. In Essendon, Labor is contesting the seat with candidate Kat Theodosis, following the retirement of Danny Pearson.
On policy, the Victorian Greens propose to freeze and cap rent increases, double the number of public homes and cut stamp duty, the tax paid when buying property. These are proposals in the party's housing platform, as set out on the Victorian Greens' website.
