Victoria now has a most powerful leftist government

A woeful Coalition campaign has delivered Victorians with the most powerful left-wing government in Australian history.

The landslide win by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was shocking both in the electorate’s ambivalence to his government’s scandals and the ineptness of the Coalition’s campaign.

For Labor to increase its majority, despite promising to increase debt by $25 billion along with inevitable tax increases, to have more than 20 MPs refusing to co-operate with police over the “red shirts” scandal, to wage war on Country Fire Authority volunteers, and with a significant increase in violent crime on its watch, is truly staggering.

The combination of a woeful campaign by the Coalition and an electorate with a “she’ll be right” attitude has potentially delivered Victoria the most powerful left-wing government in the nation’s history.

Peter Curtis, Werribee South, Vic

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, has comprehensively demonstrated that he is a better tactician than his opposite number, Matthew Guy.

Guy was aggressive in the electorate’s face on a daily basis, during the election campaign, largely focusing on the failings of the first Andrews government. Andrews ran a tight, far more subdued campaign and made himself a small target for the media.

Michael J Gamble, Belmont, Vic

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says he is very conscious of the work the Liberal Party has do in the time remaining before the next federal election. But what does work actually mean in this context?

It implies a methodical process in which steady progress is made in convincing thousands of people to vote Liberal in 2019. But political work is not like building a brick wall or mowing a lawn. There is no direct correlation between effort and results.

It seems likely that Frydenberg and his colleagues will spend a lot of money and many hours making speeches, running campaigns and talking to voters only to go backwards and lose the election. How many of us would go to work every day in order to actually reduce production?

Rod Wise, Surrey Hills, Vic

The single biggest factor in Labor’s huge majority was Greens’ preferences. Greens’ members must becoming heartily sick of their leadership’s slavish devotion to the party’s role as a preference gatherer for Labor. The Labor leadership has made it clear to them that in the event of minority government, the Greens wouldn’t be given the time of day.

It’s time the Greens became a real political party and made strategic decisions about where and to whom it directs its preferences.

Brian Sanaghan, West Preston, Vic

The moment the Victorian election was lost was Matthew Guy’s announcement that the Liberals would subsidise the purchase of low-energy fridges and TV sets. That silly policy, which was all about climate-change virtue-signalling, was the opposite of everything the Liberal Party is supposed to stand for — small government, low taxes, individual rights and personal responsibility.

Yet what are all the usual suspects saying? Yes, that the Liberals need to move even further to the Left and embrace mad climate change policies.

Burt Bosma, Surrey Hills, Vic

There must have been something stupefying in the Victorian water because Liberal politicians were bowled over like ninepins. Was the Liberal leader too weak or inexperienced against the collective might of Labor, the unions, GetUp and Canberra? Or was it the removal of level crossings?

There is a pertinent lesson here for the federal Coalition. Spend billions of dollars on extraneous promises and the voters will buy it. So Scott Morrison has little time to lose. He must work day and night to get his message across that a vote for Labor is a vote for high energy costs, higher immigration and higher taxes

Lesley Beckhouse, Queanbeyan, NSW

Everyone has a reason why the Coalition did so badly in Victoria except for members of the defeated parties. The main reason is Daniel Andrews offered people what they wanted whereas the Coalition was uncertain about what the people wanted. Labor out-campaigned the Coalition.

Labor supporters love knocking on doors; Coalition supporters do not. In addition to this, unions offered huge sums of money and people power.

It should not be forgotten that Victoria now is well and truly a socialist state led by a rampant socialist premier and government.

Peter D. Surkitt, Sandringham, Vic