Odds tighten as Green’s Lidia Thorpe leads Labor’s Clare Burns in by-election battle for Northcote

BOOKMAKERS are backing the Greens to win the looming Northcote by-election this weekend, and nab themselves a third seat in the Victorian lower house.

BOOKMAKERS are backing the Greens to win the looming Northcote by-election this weekend, and nab themselves a third seat in the Victorian lower house.

Sportsbet has placed Greens candidate Lidia Thorpe at the head of the pack at $1.80.

But she is not a firm favourite with Labor Party member Clare Burns trailing closely at $2.

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The rest of the political pack has been given long odds with Independents Vince Fontana and Brian Sanaghan at $10 and $21 respectively, Reason representative Laura Chipp at $26 and the remaining candidates at $51.

Sportsbet’s Will Byrne said four times more money had been placed on Labor than the Greens to claim the inner-city seat.

The Greens opened the odds at $1.72 but have drifted slightly, while Labor has shortened from $2.20.

“Punters have come out in strong support for Labor but we still think the Greens will pick up the seat,” Mr Byrne said.

If the bookmakers are right come Saturday afternoon, it will be a significant win for the Greens.

Ms Thorpe would enter the Legislative Assembly along with Melbourne’s Ellen Sandell and Prahran’s Sam Hibbins.

Neither leading candidate declared themselves confident less than a week out from the vote.

Ms Thorpe, who has revealed she became bankruptcy after suffering domestic violence, said she took what betting companies predicted with “a grain of salt”.

“The buzz on the ground is unbelievable and we’re receiving so much community support,” she said.

“But this is going to come down to the wire and every last vote will count.”

Ms Burns said she was not “taking anything for granted”.

“It will be tight,” she said.

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“I’m not in the business of making predictions — that’s for the pollsters and they’ve shown that they are reliably unreliable.”

Labor has held the seat of Northcote since its inception in 1927, although its margin was shaved to just six per cent at the last election.

The death of late MP Fiona Richardson in August triggered Saturday’s by-election.

Monash University political expert Nick Economou predicted the Greens would triumph but warned the success could be short-lived.

“The result of a by-election isn’t necessarily a reflection of what will happen at the next general election,” he said.

“There will be vast excitement among the Greens partisan if they win but my warning to them would be what happened in the federal seat of Cunningham.”

The Greens’ Michael Organ snatched Cunningham from the ALP in the 2002 by-election but Labor MP Susan Bird won it back in a general vote two years later.

Victoria will have a general election late next year.

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