Allan government promises more for families losing labor stronghold

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The Victorian premier is promising to do more for working class families.  After her government suffered major swings against it in a heartland western suburb. Werribee is too close to call, but Labor has taken a major hit to its primary vote. Elsewhere, the liberals won Prahran off the greens in a by-election Labor didn't contest.

Transcript

00:00This is a seat, Werribee, that Labor has held since 1979. It started this by-election with

00:08an 11% buffer, but its primary vote has collapsed from 45% down to below 30%. Now, this is a

00:14heartland, but it's not beating true. This is a real problem for the government, because

00:18there are dozens of seats like this across the place, across Melbourne, that Labor could

00:23be at risk of losing if this is replicated. Now, this is a by-election, and it's been

00:27contested heavily on. The local voters were saying there's issues of neglect. Labor has

00:31taken the area for granted for too long. There's also perceptions about crime. The Premier's

00:36been under heat for some time. This is how she's responded to that result.

00:41By-elections are an opportunity for communities to send a message and to make sure their voice

00:46is being heard. And I have been listening to the messages that Victorians have been

00:50giving me since I had the privilege of becoming Premier. And what comes with the privilege

00:56of being in a Labor government is the opportunity to support what you're being told by working

01:03people and families. It's why we've rolled out the school-saving bonus. It's why we've

01:07announced the Fairfield Plan, and it's why we know that there is more to do.

01:13And how about Paran? It's a pretty major upset for the Greens, isn't it?

01:16Yeah, Paran's quite significant. Now, the Labor Party didn't contest Paran. This was

01:21caused by a former Greens MP quitting the Parliament amid a scandal where he admitted

01:26to having an affair with a staff member, and also allegations that he tried to kiss

01:29an intern. Now, Paran was normally a really interesting seat. It's normally a three-way

01:33race between Labor, Liberals and the Greens. Labor didn't run, which has really given the

01:39Liberals a better chance of winning it. And the Liberals have been on the nose in Victoria

01:43for a long time. They haven't been able to make any headway. They've been belted the

01:46last two state elections. So for them to pick up Paran is quite significant. And to do so

01:50against the Greens is even more significant. Paran takes in parts of McNamara, the federal

01:55seat. It'll be taking parts of Kooyong now, because it was in Higgins, and that's now

01:58been abolished. So some significant victory for the Liberal Party. It gives them a chance

02:03to build momentum. And if they can somehow manage to win the seat of Werribee, which

02:08would be a phenomenal result for them, it will build their momentum to see maybe they

02:11perhaps can win the next state election. It just puts more pressure on the Labor government,

02:16who have been ascendant here for so long, to really try and address some of those issues,

02:20as the Premier tried to say earlier.

02:22Now Richard, these by-election results in Victoria, do they have any implications for

02:27the federal election, which is probably a few months away?

02:29Yeah, look, I think the main one people will be watching for is what happened in Werribee.

02:34As I said earlier, this is a heartland seat. This is what is considered safe Labor territory.

02:38It's out of suburban. It's established. It's working class. But it's also huge pockets

02:43of growth. It's in Windham, the city of Windham, which is one of the fastest growing local

02:47government areas in the country. And there's been a whole problem with infrastructure not

02:51keeping up with this population growth. Now, these are the sort of out of suburban seats

02:55considered Labor safe, were considered Labor safe, that the Liberal Party under Peter Dutton

02:59and the state leader here, Brad Batten, have been targeting. They think this is the area

03:03they can make up some ground. And there has been a general sort of slow decline of Labor's

03:07vote in these out of suburban seats. So there'll be some lessons. Look, obviously, state issues

03:12are state issues. But, you know, the federal election is around the corner. And these are

03:16sort of areas that the Liberal Party will be trying to make inroads in. And given that

03:21the Victorian government has quite obvious problems with voters at the moment, that what's

03:25happened in Werribee is sort of replicated in statewide polling that's been published.

03:30This will be areas that the Liberal Party will be targeting quite hard, sort of out

03:33of suburban areas. And there is some federal Labor people who are fearful that the Victorian

03:39Labor state government's performance will bring them down. So people will be watching

03:42Werribee and probably saying, this can be done. This isn't just, you know, write it

03:47off as just Labor territory anymore. So certainly some lessons, particularly in Werribee. Not

03:51so much, I don't think, in Paran, but Werribee, certainly one to watch, David.

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