The Greens have conceded the loss of the Victorian state seat of Prahran to the Liberals, while the result in the once-Labor stronghold of Werribee remains too close to call.
The Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, said on Sunday the result in the inner-Melbourne seat was close but that it was clear the minor party will “fall just short” when counting resumes on Monday.
“Obviously it’s not the result we had hoped for,” she told reporters.
Sandell said while Greens’ primary vote held up, the party did not pick up any of Labor voters – despite Labor’s decision not to field a candidate in the seat.
She said the Liberal candidate, Rachel Westaway, benefited from the preferences of the former Labor MP turned independent candidate, Tony Lupton, who received 12.8% of primary votes in the counting on Saturday night.
Lupton had instructed voters to preference the Liberals second and Greens last, pushing Westaway to 51.6% in the two-party-preferred vote.
“What actually made the difference here is that we had the Labor party make a decision not to run a candidate in Prahran, which left the field open for a former Labor MP and unofficial Labor candidate to run and funnel preferences to the Liberals,” Sandell said.
“To be honest, I think that progressive voters and Labor voters will be pretty disappointed.”
Sandell said turnout was also low. She believed a high proportion of young people who rent in the area may have moved since the 2022 election or were away.
“Our primary vote held up despite this [being] a byelection held during the uni summer holidays, when traditionally a lot of young people … weren’t around [and] weren’t able to vote,” she said.
“It bodes very well for the Greens and I am looking forward to winning back the seat at the general state election next year.”
The byelection was triggered by the resignation of the former Greens MP Sam Hibbins after an affair with a staffer.
The premier, Jacinta Allan, also held a press conference on Sunday, in which she conceded there was “more to do” to restore trust in her government after a collapse of support in Werribee.
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Both major parties finished Saturday night with less than 30% of the first preference votes, though Labor’s John Lister led Liberal Steve Murphy by 441 votes.
The former Labor stronghold was previously held by the treasurer Tim Pallas, who retired in December.
At the 2022 election he won the seat with a 10.9% margin and 45% first-preference votes.
The swing away from Labor now stands at 10.4%, which would be devastating for the party if replicated at the 2026 state election.
Allan said “working people and families across the state” were “looking to their governments to listen to them and do more to support them, and that’s exactly what I will do”.
“We’ve heard very clearly that people are looking to governments to do more, and we are listening to that and we will,” she said.
In both seats the Liberal party campaigns heavily focused on crime, after high-profile murders and knife attacks in Prahran and Werribee
Source: www.theguardian.com