Greens gear up for a showdown in Wills

Labor faces a tighter contest against the Greens in the Victorian seat of Wills following an electoral redistribution, but the Liberals have been hit with setbacks in the seats of Deakin and Menzies

Labor MP Peter Khalil. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government will face greater pressure from the Greens in the seat of Wills after new electorate boundaries for Victoria were ­finalised on Thursday, reducing the margin of Labor MP Peter Khalil, with the ALP-held ­division of Higgins also being abolished.

While the number of seats in Victoria was reduced from 39 to 38, new federal boundaries for Western Australia were also fin­alised with the number of state seats lifting from 15 to 16 through the creation of the new division of Bullwinkel in honour of Lieutenant Colonel Vivian Bullwinkel – a military nurse and sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Island massacre.

The new seat will be created to the east of Perth in the Perth Hills.

The Victorian changes will also leave the Liberals facing a tougher electoral contest in the seats of Deakin, held by Michael Sukkar, and Menzies, held by Keith Wolahan, with the latter electorate becoming notionally Labor-held.

Psephologists on Thursday said the final redistribution in Victoria reduced Mr Khalil’s buffer over the Greens from 8.6 per cent to a little over 5 per cent, with the former Greens Victorian leader Samantha Ratnam set to run against him in the inner-city Melbourne electorate.

The Greens believe the retirement of Bill Shorten in the neighbouring seat of Maribyrnong in February could also force Labor to redirect more resources from Wills at the next election, making the seat more vulnerable.

Mr Shorten on Thursday said the Greens needed to “work out if they want to be more than a protest outrage factory. The issues that Australia faces are complicated. Housing, climate, education, economic growth.”

The Greens say they believe their position on the Middle East conflict is winning over voters in the northern multicultural communities of Wills where its appeal has not been traditionally strong.

Other key changes include abolition of Higgins where Labor MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah vowed to “keep fighting” at the next election. She was the first Labor MP to hold the formerly safe Liberal seat, with expectations she could now contest Maribyrnong or Gorton, which is being vacated by former frontbencher Brendan O’Connor.