Victorian election: Peta Credlin, Stephen Conroy’s final verdict

Stephen Conroy and Peta Credlin give their final verdict on the Victorian election.

The final debates have been held and campaigning is drawing to a close as Victorians head to the polls tomorrow.

A Herald Sun Galaxy poll has Daniel Andrews’ Labor ahead 53-47 in the primary vote, while a Fairfax ReachTEL has Labor ahead 54-46 as Liberal leader Matthew Guy unveils a decentralisation plan to ease pressure on Melbourne. The Labor government’s huge infrastructure spend will be funded by taxpayers and their children, with Treasurer Tim Pallas conceding the state will double its debt over the next decade.

CREDLIN: Trust Team Andrews to fail the character test

CONROY: Progress says ALP deserves another term

The Australian’s campaign contributors and Sky News commentators, Peta Credlin and Stephen Conroy, have given their final analysis ahead of tomorrow’s poll.

Credlin lashes the Andrews government for withholding key information regarding Hassan Khalif Shire Ali following this month’s Bourke Street attack, taking aim at the lack of trust in Victorian Labor.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: AAP

Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy. Picture: Jason Edwards

“This is disgraceful,” she writes. “In the absence of palpable incompetence, such an obvious derelic­tion of duty should make the Andrews government unelectable, especially as no one in the government, from the Premier down, seems to have any grasp of the scale of this betrayal. Or indeed remorse …

“Yet it’s merely the latest illustration of what an ethically challenged government this is. How can Andrews expect to be taken seriously as being tough on terror and supportive of the police when, on his instructions, ministers are refusing to co-operate with a criminal investigation into the so-called Red Shirts scandal?”

Conroy, meanwhile, argues that Guy hasn’t been able to “cut through as Opposition Leader”, and that Labor’s infrastructure plan stands the government in good stead for re-election.

“Andrews has looked polished in front of the camera — reassuring, earnest and with a positive message,” he writes. “And his performance followin­g the terror attack a fortnight ago was that of a statesman.

“The more people have seen Andrews, the more they have been reminded of why they voted for him four years ago. Guy’s campaign has been negative and soulless.”

Read more Victorian election coverage here.

Watch Credlin weeknights on Sky News at 6pm; and Conroy and Kroger on Sky News, Thursdays at 8pm