Premier in sights as party fumes over Victorian Labor result

THREE months ago the ALP had hopes of winning key seats Corangamite and Dunkley, but last night the Coalition retained every Victorian seat, writes James Campbell.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews holds a press conference after Jane Garrett resigned. Picture: Alex Coppel.

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THIS is a dreadful result for the ALP in Victoria.

Three months ago the ALP had hopes of winning Corangamite on the outskirts of Geelong and Dunkley, which takes in Frankston and Mount Eliza.

The Liberals were also in trouble in La Trobe, which stretches from Boronia out to Narre Warren.

Last night, the Liberals retained every one of its seats in Victoria — with the exception of the rural seat of Murray which has been lost to the Nationals — and was on the verge of winning Chisholm, which stretches from Box Hill to Oakleigh.

Bill Shorten’s momentum was halted by the party’s Victorian problems.

Worse for Labor, it was looking like saying goodbye to the inner city seat of Batman, which runs from Clifton Hill out to Preston and the rising Green tide was also lapping at Wills (Brunswick and Coburg) and Melbourne Ports (Port Melbourne to Caulfield.)

The best that can be said for Labor is that it could have been much worse. McEwen, which stretches from Sunbury to Kinglake and down to Craigieburn, swung to Labor, helped no doubt by a dud candidate.

It also did OK in Bendigo.

The friends of Premier Daniel Andrews will be out in the next few days trying to convince us that the result showed that the CFA issue failed to bite.

It won’t wash. Bill Shorten is a Victorian. He would have expected to win seats here. He hasn’t.

Some of the responsibility for that failure has to be sheeted home to the Premier’s decision to “settle” the CFA dispute in the middle of the federal election.

The Liberals are convinced it saved their bacon in Corangamite.

Its effect elsewhere is harder to quantify. While in some places it might not have shifted votes directly, there can be no doubt it stopped dead whatever momentum Bill Shorten had in Victoria.

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