2022 federal election: inside the electorate of Melbourne, held by Adam Bandt of the Greens

For the people who live in the seat of Melbourne, it’s simple: it’s cool to vote for The Greens.

People in the seat of Melbourne keep voting for The Greens. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Collingwood, Fitzroy and Carlton might have once been synonymous with working class Australia, but few people would bet against the electorate of Melbourne returning Greens leader Adam Bandt for a fourth straight term in May.

Younger, more educated, less religious and increasingly childless, Melbourne is not only the one safe Greens seat in Australia, it is the only Greens seat in the House of Representatives.

It’s a significant shift for an electorate that for more than 100 years was held by the Labor Party, including icons of the labour movement, such as former leader Arthur Calwell.

Walking the streets of Melbourne today, it’s the rights of the trans community as much the rights of blue-collar workers, which concerns voters.

“Even if voting Greens isn’t doing much, it’s ethically the only option,” Brit Wynne, a bar manager at the popular Smith St venue Kent Street, told The Herald Sun.

“It’s (Fitzroy) is a safe space for queers, for trans, for minorities,” Mr Wynne, who lives in Fitzroy, said.

Inside the bar at Kent St is a tip jar, where a small sign encourages customers that “every tip is a vote against ScoMo.”

Mr Wynne, originally from the country WA town of Bunbury but “spiritually” from Fitzroy, said that the support for the LGBTI community and the creative community “isn’t there” from the major parties.

On nearby Gertrude St, one of Melbourne’s oldest streets, now home to some of the city’s most expensive shops and bars and Melbourne’s Pride Festival, barista Benny Mazzetti said it’s cool to vote Greens.

Benny Mazzetti, who works at Gabriel’s cafe, is one of many in the seat of Melbourne who will be voting for the Greens. Picture: Tim Carrafa

“All my mates would vote Greens,” Mr Mazzetti, 23 and from Collingwood, told The Herald Sun.

“We’re a sustainable area and people are conscious of their carbon footprint — it’s cool to be thinking about that,” he said.

Mr Mazzetti is also the co-founder of a start-up called Barista Brix, which turns old coffee grinds into flammable bricks that can be used in fireplaces.

Mr Mazzetti, who works at Gabriel cafe, said he also supported the Greens’ push to decriminalise drugs and said that few people who worked at his cafe would drive a car.

With an average age of 27, a decade younger than the state average, it’s voters like Mr Wynne and Mr Mazzetti who characterise modern-day Melbourne and in particular the inner-north — a reality that works significantly in the favour of the Greens.

Adam Bandt took Melbourne from the ALP at the 2010 election after the retirement of his predecessor, former federal minister Lindsay Tanner, and has held with a steadily increasing percentage of votes since.

His winning margin at the 2019 election of 21.8 per cent makes the seat one of the safest in the country.

The percentage of first-preference votes in Melbourne at that election was 49.3 per cent, nearly five times the Greens’ national average of 10.4 per cent.

Bandt, a law and arts graduate from Perth’s Murdoch University who wrote a PhD on “rethinking Marxist legal theory,” also resembles his highly educated electorate, where 43 per cent of voters have a bachelors degree or more compared to a state average of 24 per cent.

Greens leader Adam Bandt has held the seat of Melbourne since August 2010.

Couples in Melbourne are also substantially less likely to have children: 64 per cent of families are defined as “couples without children,” with the corresponding state figure 36.5 per cent.

Just three doors down from Adam Bandt’s electorate office on Fitzroy’s Johnston St is the Cruelty Free Shop — a vegan supermarket that also sells vegan fashion and cookbooks.

Employee Paul, who did not want to give his surname, said it was the most vegan-friendly area when they opened eight years ago.

“With our customers, there’s definitely a glut in that 20-35 year-old age range,” Paul, 45, said.

The Cruelty Free Shop is one of a handful vegan and vegetarian restaurant on Brunswick St and walking distance to Veggie Bar, one of Melbourne’s first vegan-only restaurants.

Beau Lowenstern, a 31-year-old designer from Fitzroy, said the Greens were the party with the values that most closely align with his own.

“They’re the only party with a concrete plan to combat climate change,” Mr Lowenstern told the Herald Sun.

“I’m unimpressed with all political parties, but I’m least unimpressed by the Greens,” he said.

Mr Lowenstern admitted that little was achieved by the area consistently returning a member of the Greens.

Working at a denim store on Gertude St, Stephanie Lam said while she doesn’t follow politics, the Greens would be getting her vote.

“I think they most closely align with my values of sustainability and conservation,” Ms Lam, 27 and from Collingwood, said.