Your guide to the Victorian election
It’s election day in Victoria and Labor is hoping to gain a second term. Here is a guide to the major issues, party policies and how to vote.
Labor is ahead in the polls as Victorians head to the ballot box today.
The Newspoll published by The Weekend Australian showed Labor ahead of the Liberal-National Party on 53.5 per cent to 46.5 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
It follows two other polls published in The Age and the Herald Sun that showed a similar margin.
Despite a rough end to their election campaign with multiple candidates coming under fire for unethical behaviour, the Greens remain hopeful of forming a minority government with Labor, something that Premier Daniel Andrews has said he wouldn’t do.
The Greens hope to hold on to its inner-city electorates of Melbourne, Prahran and Northcote, and to gain Richmond and Brunswick.
Meanwhile the Liberal/National coalition needs a uniform swing of three per cent to — seven extra seats — to form a majority government and force out Labor.
The results of the ReachTEL poll of 1239 Victorian voters taken on November 21 implies Labor could win the coalition seats of Ripon, Bass, Burwood and South Barwon. This would give it an improved majority if it is returned after Saturday’s election.
About 40 per cent of Victorians have already voted early or via postal votes.
HOW TO VOTE
Postal vote: Closed on Wednesday, 6pm.
Early voting: Closed on Friday, 6pm.
Election day: Voting booths will be open from 8am until 6pm.
THE STATE OF PLAY
Labor currently holds 46 of 88 seats, the Coalition has 37 seats, while the Greens have three seats, and there are two independents.
CONFUSION OVER PREFERENCES
There’s been an increased interest in preferences as Victoria has not reformed its system to avoid the election of obscure candidates thanks to preference deals.
In the lower house, you need to number every box in order of preference.
In the upper house (Legislative Council) you can put one number above the line. But some experts are recommending people vote below the line to keep control of their vote and make sure it does not go to smaller parties due to preference deals. If you choose to vote below the line you must number your first five preferences at least.
THE KEY ISSUES
Liberal leader Matthew Guy appears to be staking his success on a tough-on-crime approach, although this was almost derailed after he accidentally visited the cafe of a convicted drug criminal while spruiking energy costs for businesses.
Victorian Labor Premier Daniel Andrews also accused Mr Guy of “trading tragedy for votes” after the Liberal leader held a press conference with Prime Minister Scott Morrison, outside the cafe that Bourke Street attack victim Sisto Malaspina owned.
But Mr Guy hit back against Mr Andrews, accusing him of breaching caretaker conventions by standing beside Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton during a police press conference on Tuesday about counter-terrorism arrests.
Mr Andrews defended the decision saying “I don’t go missing in action. This is a very serious matter”.
Meanwhile Mr Andrews has pinned his election hopes on Labor promises to build hospitals and other infrastructure to cater to Victoria’s growing population.
During a leaders debate on Wednesday Mr Andrews defended Labor’s decision to cancel contracts for the East West Link toll road, which cost the state more than $1 billion. He said the link would have cost close to $20 billion and withdrawing had allowed him to deliver on commitments including removing railway level crossings and improving public transport.
“I was pretty angry myself the morning after the election to be told that the contract had essentially been rigged, the money had been paid out and there was no way that we could recoup that,” Mr Andrews said.
Mr Guy called the decision a “criminal waste of money”, saying that Mr Andrews had promised cancelling the contract would not cost voters money. “Think of all the hospitals, schools, teachers everything that could have been paid for with that amount of money,” he said.
GREEN WOES
Greens candidate for Sandringham, Dominic Phillips has been named as the man accused of sexual misconduct.
Greens leader Samantha Ratnam told ABC she decided to identify Mr Phillips to ensure there was no ambiguity for voters. He has been ordered to “withdraw from all campaign-related activities” while investigations continue.
Labor has ruled out making any deals with the Greens if it fails to win a majority government, saying the party has a “toxic cultural problem” around women.
Both major parties also piled on the Greens over revelations the minor party’s candidate for Footscray, Angus McAlpine, once fronted a hip-hop group that released songs with depraved lyrics about date raping and domestic violence. Ms Ratnam is standing by Mr McAlpine who has apologised and says he is now ashamed of the lyrics.
Earlier upper house candidate Joanna Nilson also resigned over a series of embarrassing Facebook posts.
But the Greens are not the only party who have faced issues with their candidates, the Liberal Party dumped its candidate for the lower-house seat of Yan Yean, Meralyn Klein, after a video emerged of her calling for a ban on Muslim immigration. She will remain on the ballot paper but is no longer endorsed by the Liberals. Ms Klein says she thought the video was about violence against women.
WHO THE PAPERS ARE BACKING
The Sunday Age says “with little enthusiasm” Labor should be given another four years as most governments cannot be judged on one term and the Opposition had failed to make a sufficient case for change.
But the Sunday Herald Sun editorialises that it’s time for a change and the Liberal Party should be brought in. It noted that hardly a month had passed when the Andrews Government hadn’t been rocked by scandal, ineptitude and fiascos which question its integrity.
Interestingly, the gun lobby also appears to be backing the Liberals and has funded “Not. Happy. Dan” ads against Labor.
HOW PROMISES WILL BE FUNDED
Labor plans to borrow $25.6 billion to pay for its ambitious Victorian infrastructure promises, doubling the state’s net debt.
Big-ticket items including the North East Link road, airport rail and the removal of 25 rail level crossings. This will bring net debt to 12 per cent of gross state product. The government anticipates an average annual surplus of $2.4 billion for the next four years.
Meanwhile, the coalition plans to lease out Melbourne’s sewerage treatment service for 50 years to unlock $5 billion for major road and rail projects. It will spend $17.6 billion over four years delivering its election promises.
Proceeds would go towards funding the East West Link, North East Link and fast regional rail and suburban rail extensions.
Shadow treasurer Michael O’Brien revealed net debt level would fall across forward estimates from six per cent to 5.8 per cent over four years.
TOUGH ON CRIME?
Matthew Guy says Victoria will get a minister for counter-terrorism, if a Liberal-Nationals government is elected.
Mr Guy said parliament would sit before Christmas to deal with “priority legislation” to improve safety. This would include legislation to lock up people who breach bail.
There are plans to draft legislation in December for new mandatory minimum sentences, a public sex offenders register and ending concurrent sentencing for offences committed while on bail.
Mr Guy earlier announced a $89.5 million counter-terrorism policy that includes banning potential terrorists from Melbourne’s CBD and tracking them by satellite.
Victoria Police would be able to ask for an order from a magistrate or children’s court for GPS tracking, living arrangements, exclusion zones, restrictions or prohibitions on communications, regular reporting to authorities and mandatory deradicalisation and drug and alcohol programs.
About 100 Victoria Police officers would undergo advanced counter-terrorism training, 50 new surveillance and analyst staff would be recruited and an extra 76 frontline officers would be hired to operate in street patrol teams.
Mr Guy also pledged to hold Victoria’s judiciary accountable by publishing online each judge’s decision from the bench. This includes sentences they hand down, court sitting times, time taken to deliver decisions and how many times their judgments have been overturned on appeal.
The sentences would be reviewed regularly by a commission which could recommend changes to legislation.
Meanwhile Labor has promised to ensure there will always be two police officers on counter duty at 24-hour stations, and a certain number of police patrolling to respond to emergency calls.
BOOTCAMP FOR TEEN CRIMINALS
The Liberal-Nationals coalition has also announced a military-style bootcamp for teen criminals and funding for a campaign against street violence.
Under Liberal plans, Children’s Court magistrates would have the power to send nonviolent teenagers to a 12-week camp instead of youth jail.
TRAIN WARS
Labor has pledged $300 million for a business case to look at a potential $50 billion suburban underground rail loop with 12 new stations.
It will also remove three rail level crossings in Deer Park, a part of its $6.6 billion promise to remove 25 level crossings by 2025.
The coalition is countering with a $19 billion regional rail network that will include high-speed rail on four lines, to encourage people to live outside of Melbourne.
Both parties have committed to finding $5 billion to fund the airport rail link via Sunshine.
NORTH EAST LINK
Labor has pledged to kick-start work on Melbourne’s $15.8 billion North East Link toll road on day-one back in office.
The 26km road, which will connect the M80 ring road at Greensborough with the Eastern Freeway, was first proposed by Labor in 2008.
Premier Daniel Andrews recommitted to the project in 2016 and has already put more than $200 million into planning and design. On Thursday he promised to call for construction tenders on Monday.
He expects construction to start in 2020 and the road to open in 2027. The road will be fully funded by taxpayers.
Both Labor and the Liberal Party have promised to build the road, although Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has said he will review the plans if he wins office.
Mr Guy’s seat of Bulleen is affected by the current proposed route.
Roads Minister Luke Donnellan suggested a review of the project by a Liberal-Nationals government would delay construction.
MORE BUSES
Braving the rain on Friday, coalition leader Matthew Guy visited Cranbourne railway station with wife Renae to make a final promise for more bus services in the seat and across the state.
At a cost of $70 million, 40 new routes would be created for under-serviced areas.
WE LOVE TRAMS
The Greens has a “We love trams” plan that includes $700 million for new tram routes over the next eight years and to put in a place a long term plan to bring trams to suburbs such as Williamstown, Sunshine, West Melbourne, Brighton, Black Rock, Heidelberg, Ivanhoe, Chadstone, Bentleigh and Ormond.
It wants to spend $4.1 billion on building 30 high capacity trams a year for the next 10 years and $2.3 billion on upgrading overcrowded routes.
BABY BONUS
Labor has promised $232 million to provide more maternal and childhood nurses, help build seven new early parenting centres, refurbish two more and find more home support for families.
Mr Andrews wants to give a baby bundle of essentials, worth about $150, to the 35,000 first-time parents in Victoria. It would include a nappy bag, safe sleeping bag, muslin wrap and four picture books, among other items and advice for new parents.
A $7 million payroll tax exemption to employers for maternity leave will be changed to be an exemption for all parental leave, so more fathers can also take time off work.
Labor will also introduce free installation of car seats and funding for kindergartens in a bid to win over parent voters.
It has also announced $27 million to make two early-childhood TAFE courses free and to provide 8000 university scholarships for kindergarten teachers to support their plan for universal care for three-year-olds to attend kindergarten.
The coalition has promised an extra $1.6 million for mother-and-baby mental health and $1.8 million for pain patients. It will also provide $700,000 for The Babes Project, which supports disadvantaged mums, to open a western suburbs branch.
NEW HOSPITALS
Labor will build Geelong a hospital dedicated to women and children as well as another 504-bed hospital in Melbourne’s west.
It has promised $100 million will be spent on stage one works for the Geelong hospital, including detailed planning and design, along with early construction.
It will also put $1.5 billion towards building a new Footscray Hospital, which would be a major health hub and cater to an extra 15,000 patients each year. The preferred site for the new hospital would be at Victoria University’s Footscray Park campus.
If Labor stays in government, construction will begin in 2020 and it will open in 2025.
Mr Andrews has also announced $62.5 million for children’s emergency departments at five major hospitals. This includes a new 30-bed ward and 20 extra rooms in the emergency department will be built at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.
Meanwhile, the Liberal-Nationals have promised $461 million to match Labor’s budget commitment to expand Ballarat Base Hospital.
FREE DENTAL VAN
Labor has promised to bring back free dental vans to provide free checks at public schools if re-elected on Saturday.
A total of 250 dental vans would visit schools around the state and the $395.8 million initiative could save families up to $400 per child each year, he said.
FREE TAMPONS
Labor has promised to provide primary and secondary schools with free pads and tampons in female, unisex and accessible bathrooms.
REPLACE YOUR TV
The coalition will help people to reduce their electricity bills by offering a 40 per cent discount on old energy-inefficient household goods for low-income households in Victoria.
Appliances eligible for replacement include refrigerators aged six years or more, plasma and cathode ray tube televisions. The program will cost $40 million over four years but the party believes it will save up to 85,000 households as much as $325 a year.
NEW POWER STATION
The coalition has promised to build a new, possibly fossil-fuelled, power station in Victoria to try and bring down electricity prices.
Mr Guy said a tender would be released for the private sector to build and run a new power plant to bring 500MW into the grid. The coalition believes it would save households $350 a year.
It has modelled the plan on a gas-fired plant, which could be built in two years, and would be put to tender within six months of the change of government. But it has left the door open to coal as it says it won’t dictate the energy source.
In a trainwreck interview Michael Lamb, the Liberal candidate in the marginal seat of Frankston, struggled to explain the plans and finally conceded the power station would be partly taxpayer-funded.
Liberal candidate for Frankston Michael Lamb says his party will get the private industry to build a power station in Victoria, if elected, but admits it will be at least partly taxpayer-funded.
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) November 21, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/vMF1BfEI9c #Speers pic.twitter.com/8S4kxVdyvI
The opposition is also promising to help keep open Yallourn coal-fired power station until 2032 and would freeze the coal royalty tax until 2032.
Labor wants 25 per cent of the state’s electricity to be from renewable sources by 2020, 40 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030.
It will also double penalties to $250,000 for energy retailers who wrongfully disconnect customers.
FAMILY VIOLENCE
Labor and The Greens have promised to implement all of the royal commission’s recommendations, while the Liberal party is still considering its response.
MENTAL HEALTH
Labor has promised $13.2 million on a royal commission into mental health and Opposition leader on Wednesday conceded for the first time that he would consider supporting it.
“We haven’t factored in the costing, we’ll have a look at it if we can, because I think it’s vitally important that we focus on mental health,” Mr Guy said.
LEGALISING CANNABIS?
Reason Party leader Fiona Patten wants Victoria to be the first state to legalise recreational cannabis.
Ms Patten is campaigning to retain her seat in the upper house and is promising to bring forward legislation within 12 months of the new parliament.
The Victorian Parliamentary Budget Office expects the state would raise $204 million in increased revenues, taxes, policing and prosecution reductions in the move, she said.
Ms Patten has been a vocal advocate for other pieces of controversial legislation which have since become law, including safe zones around abortion clinics, Melbourne’s supervised injecting centre and voluntary assisted dying.
WHAT THEY PROMISED
Labor:
— Enshrining the onshore gas fracking ban in Victoria’s constitution
— Half-price camping across state and national parks and $105.6 million towards more camping grounds and improved four-wheel-drive and walking tracks
— $32 million for public IVF services for low-income couples struggling to get pregnant.
— $340 million to build 54 VLocity carriages to make up to 18 new three-car trains for the Geelong and Ballarat lines
— $14 million for 1000 free car parks across the Ballarat CBD including the train station
— $350,000 to roll out 32 mobile charging bars at selected Melbourne train stations
— $62.4 million to reconfigure or expand existing emergency departments for a dedicated children’s space at Geelong, Maroondah, Frankston, Casey and the Northern hospitals
— $100 million for stage one works of Geelong hospital
— $1.5 billion towards building new Footscray Hospital
— $4 million to Neighbourhood Houses and community organisations so that they can run child car seat fitting and safety checks
— $500,000 for the Country Women’s Association
— $2 million towards the development of a LGBTI tourism strategy
— Doubling of civil penalty notices to $250,000 for big energy companies who wrongfully disconnect customers
— To stop door-to-door sales and cold calling telemarketers harassing families
— $800,000 to a program teaching surfers CPR skills, board rescues and basic first aid
— $10 million towards the $22.3 million upgrade of Her Majesty’s Theatre in Ballarat
— $1.5 million to expand the Centenary of Anzac Centre, run by Phoenix Australia, which is internationally known for its work in post-traumatic mental health
— $600,000 to complete the building of the Jan Juc Surf Life Saving clubhouse
— $13.2 million on a royal commission into mental health
— $27 million to make two early-childhood TAFE courses free and to provide 8000 university scholarships for kindergarten teachers.
— $150,000 for a trial to put 10 retired greyhounds in public nursing homes
— $1 million on shelters and foster carers for dogs
— $2 million for upgraded and expanded community vet clinics
— $67.6 million for stage-two redevelopment of Frankston’s adult education centre, the Chisholm Institute
— $5.3 million for ‘Home of Golf’ stage two project at Sandringham Golf Club
— $2 million in grants for minor upgrades and equipment to golf clubs
— $7.5 million to continue the development of local cricket hubs
— $6 million for upgrades to cricket infrastructure
— Remove three rail level crossings in Deer Park, a part of its $6.6 billion promise to remove 25 level crossings by 2025
— $5 million to establish a Victorian Wine Showcase to target key markets overseas.
Liberal-Nationals:
— $40 million towards energy-efficient television and fridge subsidies for low-income households
— $20 million for 1500 new car parks in Ballarat’s CBD
— $4 million community solar grants program for groups such as sporting clubs, scout halls, hospitals and kindergartens
— $1 million over four years to boost the Community Ice Action Grants program
— $4.8 million in grants for the delivery of transition programs for people who have completed residential rehab
— $89.5 million for counter-terrorism measures including restriction orders, more police training, analyst and surveillance staff, and more CBD patrol teams
— A nine-point fishing plan, including a $30 million fish habitat restoration fund, $7 million fish hatchery at Shepparton and free parking at boat ramps and no launching fees for boats
— An environmental assessment commission to give advice to government on resource, quarry and mining matters
— $5 million over four years to help disability respite services with set-up costs or to expand
— $10 million to support disability social enterprises to start-up and expand
— Tender process for a new power station to provide 500MW of electricity
— $21 million to complete the Goulburn Valley Health master plan, deliver a residential mother and baby unit and progress early works and planning of stage two of the hospital redevelopment
— $67 million to emergency services including $51.3 million to Country Fire Authority stations across the state
— Promising to release elective surgery wait times for patients, from the initial GP referral
— Increase police resources in holiday towns during busy periods
— $140 million for palliative care and $50 million for families who have children who are autistic
— $60 million over five years to revitalise the Life. Be In It campaign in Victoria
— A minister for counter-terrorism, minister for population decentralisation as well as a minister for the regional city of Geelong will be created
— Supervised injecting room in North Richmond would be shut down within a week
— Move Victoria’s finances from Westpac to Bendigo Bank
— $461 million to match Labor’s budget commitment to expand Ballarat Base Hospital, with an extra $1.6 million for mother-and-baby mental health and $1.8 million for pain patients
— $100 million to discount stamp duties for pensioner downsizing properties
— $30 million plan to retrain 400 police cell custody officers into protective service officers
— $1 million for upgrades to Alfredton Primary School
— $520,000 to Greek Orthodox Archdiocese
Greens:
— $270 million boost to mental health funding
— Would repeal mandatory sentencing laws and reintroduce suspended sentences
— Would introduce a housing ombudsman to settle disputes
— $700 million for new tram routes over the next eight years.
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