15 Results

Canberra and Queensland tend to get most of the political headlines these days, but there’s been a bit more attention this week on Victoria, and not in a good way for Liberal premier Ted Baillieu.

Despite some satisfaction in Victorian ALP Left circles, Saturday’s result has refocused the right’s attention on its divided status, with one peacemaker reporting that the “language change had been extraordinary” and that the state branch was now bracing for a “monumental sh-tfight”.

The Victorian Labor Party is preparing for a smooth and uncontroversial leadership transition, with the party’s Socialist Left faction now in a commanding position to install health minister Daniel Andrews after it lost just one MP on Saturday night.

The Herald Sun has been caught red-handed trying to entrap Victorian MPs in an unethical and possibly illegal sting operation just days before the state election.

Hunting and fishing aficionados the Country Alliance will preference the Labor Party in 10 lower house seats in exchange for Labor preferences in the upper house regions of Northern and Eastern Victoria.

If the Liberals really thought they could wipe out the Greens, they’ve left it much too late.

Week two happenings in the Victorian election so far include the media’s diagnosis of the soon-to-be-forgotten leaders debate, Ted Ballieu’s struggle to get his message out and the ALP’s secret research that tells them what they should already know, reports William Bowe.

The Victorian election campaign has finally, sort of, spluttered to life, but the fact that it took ABC Mornings host Jon Faine to do it in front of a hectoring crowd of creek protestors on the patio of Sofia pizza restaurant in Frankston probably says a lot for the disinterest most of the state’s citizens have in this campaign.

A new Essential Research poll has the Victorian election too close to call. And in NSW Labor faces a huge swing - though perhaps not as bad as expected.

Australia’s anointed political commentariat have been desperate to drain as much analytical mileage from the state election results as possible.

Whoever wins the marginal seats in this year’s Victorian election, such as McEwen and Deakin, could find that the boundary commissioners will have a big influence on their tenure.

Journalists and commentators love to quote “informed sources” and the like within the political parties. But it’s problematic, writes Charles Richardson.