Greens’ Ellen Sandell claims seat of Melbourne after Labor concedes

LABOR has conceded defeat in the seat of Melbourne, confirming that the Greens have won their first lower house seat in the Victorian parliament.

Greens MP for Melbourne Ellen Sandell speaks to media with federal Greens MP Adam Bandt. Picture: Mark Dadswell

FORMER Labor MP Jennifer Kanis has conceded defeat in the seat of Melbourne, confirming that the Greens have won their first lower house seat in the Victorian parliament.

On her facebook page this afternoon, Ms Kanis wrote “Thank you everyone for your help in running a positive, values driven, people powered campaign to tell the community why Victoria needed an Andrews’ Labor Government”.

“Today’s counting has shown that Melbourne will not be a part of the change. However, we should all be very proud of the part we have played in electing Daniel Andrews as our new premier”.

The new Greens MP for Melbourne, Ellen Sandell, then posted on Facebook: “A few minutes ago Labor officially conceded that the Greens have won our first lower house Victorian seat — here in Melbourne. Thank you to Jennifer Kanis for running a fair and respectful campaign here in Melbourne this year. Thanks for representing the people of Melbourne and I’m sure you’ll continue to serve your community and do good things”.

Labor held hopes briefly yesterday that they may be able to retain the seat, but the Greens pushed too far ahead today.