Victorian Liberals will field candidates in key inner Melbourne seats

Michael Kroger confirms Victorian Libs will field candidates in inner Melbourne but will leave Richmond to Labor and Greens.

Josh Frydenberg and Michael Kroger at the Liberal Party election launch. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

Victorian Liberal President Michael Kroger has confirmed the party will field candidates in Brunswick, Melbourne and Northcote but not in Richmond, where Planning Minister Richard Wynne will face off directly against the Greens.

The eleventh hour decision comes as the Victorian Election Commission prepares to close for nominations from political parties at midday.

Speaking to The Australian, Mr Kroger declared the Liberal Party was not a “preference machine” to help the re-election of the Andrews Labor government.

“[We] will not be complicit in assisting in the re-election of Richard Wynne,” he told The Australian. “The Liberal Party is not a preference machine for Daniel Andrews.”

While the Liberals will now field candidates in Northcote, Brunswick and Melbourne, Mr Kroger said no final decisions on preferences had been made.

The Liberal Party scored 24 per cent in Melbourne, 21 per cent in Richmond and just over 16 per cent in both Northcote and Brunswick.

While some state administrative committee members believe it makes sense for the party to run in all five seats, others believe the party could strike a balance ­between putting candidates up and netting funding, while exerting maximum pain on Labor.

It costs about $8000 for the party to field a candidate in a lower house seat on a bare-bones campaign, a party source said.

Campaigning shortly before the decision about inner city candidates was made public, Mr Guy made it clear the Liberals would not be helping Mr Wynne, describing the choice between Labor and the Greens as a choice between “the devil and the deep blue sea”.

“I expect that there are some of those seats where we won’t be standing, and I hope that all Liberal voters would understand that we are doing what is right for the Liberal Party in order to get a government for all of Victoria that can govern for the longer term interests of Victoria,” Mr Guy said.

“I simply say this: the Liberal Party is not a preference machine for Daniel Andrews or the extreme greens, neither of the two.

“Someone like Dick Wynne, who has been a part of the Labor rorts scandal, who’s refusing to cooperate with Victoria Police, well how on earth can the Liberal Party offer preferences to the Labor Party in the seat of Richmond when their candidate is refusing to cooperate with a base level of cooperation with Victoria Police?

“What message does that then send that it’s fine for someone to stand for parliament, for the Liberal Party to support them, when they’re choosing not to even cooperate with the Victoria Police?

“I’m sorry, I think that the Liberal Party and those who live in those seats would understand that the choice between the devil and the deep blue sea is something we find very difficult.”