Andrews victory built on a disciplined campaign

As the early results came in for those seats the Coalition needed to win to form government or even force Labor into a coalition with the Greens, it was clear there was no favourable swing.

In fact, quite the opposite. As the night progressed, the swing across eastern and southeastern Melbourne built for the Labor Party. Towards the end of the evening, some of my colleagues on the Seven Network panel were predicting a gain for the ALP of 16 seats. I suspect when all votes are finally tallied that number might be somewhat less.

Regardless, it is an overwhelming victory for Daniel Andrews and his team of politicians and party organisers. I congratulate them.

So why did the Andrews team do so well? In the main I suspect because the Premier ran a very disciplined campaign. It was against a background of considerable works being done all around the state, particularly in metropolitan Melbourne.

The Premier’s catchphrase of “getting the job done” was being lived by the community.

Other aspects of the Labor government that caused some of us deep concern — the red shirts affair and the proposed massively increased debt over time — were not front and centre in most of the community’s mind.

Labor had a plan, they were delivering, and the public were witnessing that delivery. Their campaign was positive.

For any opposition it is always difficult to unseat a first-term government, particularly one that is in office in good economic times and uses those good times to address many of the community’s infrastructure challenges.

Matthew Guy led a united parliamentary team, but did not have the levers to pull that a government has and therefore, like any opposition, can only promise action if elected while the government is delivering.

Guy was caught by two maelstroms not of his making that sucked the oxygen and the support from the conservative parties. One was his president Michael Kroger’s personal and very public and financially costly vendetta against the Cormack Foundation and its directors, who have been senior Liberals and highly respected businessmen who have given decades of voluntary service to the party, and raised millions of dollars. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Not only did Kroger’s action over months demonstrate disunity within the Liberal Party, he totally failed in his objective to gain control of the foundation’s finances.

I said on Saturday night that Kroger’s time has come and gone and in the interest of the party he leads he should stand down immediately.

The second issue was the turmoil in Canberra with yet another leadership change, which followed similar changes by Labor. The public is sick and tired of politicians playing their own personal games irrespective of the public interest. Again it demonstrates disunity, by those whose views were out of step with the majority of Australians.

I did not approve of Malcolm Turnbull taking the leadership from Tony Abbott for the same reason I did not approve the removal of Turnbull. Elected prime ministers should complete their terms, regardless of polls and the personal ambitions of others. This destabilising campaign against Turnbull reflected on everyone wearing Liberal colours. It hurt the Victorian Liberals badly.

Of the issues on which the Coalition based its campaign, law and order, regardless of the violent incidents that are part of our society, did not rate against activity and employment, which were the bases of the Labor campaign.

Clearly the Liberal Party will have to scrutinise its performance, policies offered and campaign techniques.

There was one Coalition policy that upset me when I heard it announced late in the campaign: the plan to close the medically supervised injecting facility.

We have been trying to address the drug issue for years without success. One person’s life is as important as any other person’s, and the facility is a genuine attempt to address the drug issue differently and better.

In my opinion, good governments are those that are economically conservative and socially liberal. To meet the changing circumstances of our times, with so much of that change being driven by the heightened education of our community, to be socially responsible the Liberal Party should have found its way clear to support the injecting room.

As I have always said, the public does not vote for oppositions, they vote for or against their government. On Saturday, the public overwhelmingly voted for their government.