‘Finding new ways to fail': Liberals set to lose seats to Labor in Melbourne
Labor had been expected to give up ground in Victoria at the federal election, as the Coalition targeted Melbourne's outer fringes as a potential path to victory.
Instead, Labor is poised to win Deakin, Aston and Menzies in the eastern suburbs in a devastating result for the Liberals that could completely lock the party out of the city.
There were other seats, including Casey and La Trobe in the east and south-eastern suburbs, that were also considered close races that could further add to the Labor stronghold in Victoria.
The Liberals could be left with just four or five seats out of 38 in the state, with zero gains.
In Aston, which takes in the Melbourne suburbs of Boronia, Ferntree Gully and Wantirna, Mary Doyle faced a tough challenge holding on to a seat that Labor gained at a byelection in 2023, the first time a sitting government had done so in 100 years.
But as of 10.30pm on Saturday, the Australian Electoral Commission's results showed a two-party swing of 7.5 per cent to Doyle against Liberal candidate Manny Cicchiello. Entering the day she had a buffer of 3.6 per cent; her new margin was sitting just under 7 per cent, with votes still being counted.
'That is a remarkable swing,' said ABC election analyst Antony Green. 'That is with half of the primary vote counted, Labor is going to be ahead on first preferences with a big vote for the Greens. That is not turning around.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
For Victoria, Allan's bounce back is anything but healthy
The old gag about Melbourne's weather is that if you don't like it, just wait five minutes. The same might be said about the Allan government and opinion polls. The latest Resolve Political Monitor survey shows that in a reverse of Newton's law of gravity, the collapse of popular support for Victorian Labor at the end of last year is matched only by the startling recovery of the past six months. A primary vote of just 22 per cent is now 32 per cent and rising. A looming electoral cataclysm has been replaced by the likelihood of a fourth consecutive win. The volatility in voter sentiment is extraordinary but then, so is the situation in Victoria, where a Labor administration which, by any conventional measure or norm, has governed beyond its natural lifespan, yet remains the only viable choice before electors to run the state. This is not healthy. I recently interviewed Melbourne Law School associate professor William Partlett, a fellow at the Centre for Public Integrity. He sees Victorian Labor as an example of a cartel party, a concept the late Irish political scientist Peter Mair coined to describe how political parties co-opt the resources of the state to create electoral monopolies. In Victoria, it is seen in the blurring of boundaries between the Labor Party, the public service and an expanding public sector that embeds a not-so-virtuous cycle of self-sustaining incumbency. It is the passage of electoral funding laws, with the support of a gormless Liberal Party, that bake in an advantage for sitting MPs against challengers and established parties against new entrants. It is constraint of the state's anti-corruption agency with a jurisdiction so narrow it rarely holds public hearings and must be convinced of the commission of a crime before it launches an investigation.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
Sydney has reached peak metro. Is it all downhill from here?
'We're limited by what we can afford,' Minns stressed this month. 'No one should be under any illusion that right now we're at full capacity when it comes to what's deliverable and what's buildable in NSW today.' Minns has also dashed any hopes of new stations for the under-construction Metro West having the same artistic flair that has given Sydney its first Instagrammable public transport project. A pedestrian tunnel linking Martin Place metro station with the existing station is called Mulu Giligu – meaning 'path of light' in the Gadigal language. Artist Callum Morton used 10,000 brightly coloured porcelain enamel tiles to create two soaring murals at both entrances to Gadigal station. A portrait of an Indigenous dancer named Roscoe is a feature of Waterloo station. The architecturally designed stations double as a tourist attraction and destination for art lovers. But Minns has foreshadowed that the new stations on Metro West – linking Parramatta to the CBD – will be 'form over function' with a focus on moving commuters from A to B. Minns' reticence to overpromise more metros or art-filled stations is understandable given the underground lines come with multibillion-dollar price tags. The government argues that something has to give, and schools, hospitals and roads cannot be sacrificed for public transport that services only Sydney. But it is a bitter pill to swallow for a city that cannot get enough of its new toy. Loading Similarly, the opposition has seized on Sydney's love affair with the metro which was, after all, a Coalition project. On the day Sydney was wishing the metro a happy birthday, Opposition Leader Mark Speakman was declaring that the Coalition had 'metro ambitions', creating its most notable point of difference with the government to date. How a Coalition would pay for an expanded metro network will be the biggest question the opposition must answer if it is to be believed that it can deliver more fast rail. Where those lines would run will be another obvious question. There are some clues on routes. A confidential review of Sydney's metro projects proposed completing an extension of the airport metro line from Bradfield to 'Bradfield South'. Cost? Nudging $2.5 billion. It also suggested a rail link from Leppington to Bradfield South. Add another $4.6 billion. Those lines could be followed by a northern extension of the airport metro line from St Marys to Schofields by 2037 ($9.6 billion) and on to Tallawong for a further $3.2 billion. Those additions alone will cost NSW a whopping $19.9 billion. The Coalition may not choose to pursue all those proposals, but regardless, it will face massive, if not insurmountable, financial challenges to pursue the metro dream. Ambition is not enough. What is clear is that the metro has changed Sydney. The squeeze in peak hour, when commuters are squashed in like sardines, is a measure of the metro's success. But it is also a source of frustration for some commuters who long for a little more personal space. The government could increase the frequency of the peak services to every three minutes, down from the current four, or it could add extra carriages. But those changes also come with considerable operating costs and this is a Labor government determined not to be a spendthrift. So where does this leave Sydney? We have a world-class fast, reliable rail system that has finally put the city on par with other global powerhouses. No wonder we love it.
The Age
an hour ago
- The Age
ICAC's big day out: Former mayor charged over misleading evidence
Say what you like about the Independent Commission Against Corruption – it works too quickly/too slowly, it's too secretive/too public, it's a kangaroo court/a bastion of our democracy – the one thing you can't accuse our state's top corruption warriors of is lying low. On Wednesday, the ICAC played a central role in Sydney's news cycle. The commission's big day in the spotlight started early: just after 7am, Eddie Obeid – the corrupt former Labor MP who was brought down after an extensive ICAC investigation found him guilty of misconduct in public office – plodded out of jail. Hours after he walked free, another ICAC victim was heading inside: Daryl Maguire, that bad boy regional MP whose relationship with former premier Gladys Berejiklian was revealed when the commission played tapped phone calls between the pair, was sentenced to 10 months in prison for misleading a corruption inquiry. He was swiftly released on bail. But the agency's sting doesn't stop there: CBD now brings you news that Bill Saravinovski, the former mayor of Bayside Council in Sydney's south, has been hit with three charges of giving misleading evidence to the commission. The ICAC quietly uploaded a document to its website late last week that provides some detail on Operation Aspen: it investigated allegations Saravinovski and others 'inappropriately or partially shared or disclosed confidential information to property developers' and that he supported an unsolicited development proposal from a property developer. It was decided, according to the document, to refer the matter to the Office of Local Government. A court found him guilty of misconduct after he berated council staff over the development of a car park where he failed to correctly declare a conflict of interest. While that occurred, the Director of Public Prosecutions was considering a request from the agency about whether there was sufficient evidence to charge him with three offences for giving misleading information during the investigation. Last week the DPP acted, laying three charges that are yet to be tested in court – he'll visit the Downing Centre late next month.
