Greens tipping big wins in Vic poll


Flushed with their federal success, euphoric Greens are predicting "historic" results in the Victorian election.

But they steadfastly refuse to say exactly how historic those results will be.

Following a Melbourne campaign launch - replete with Greens candidates, green balloons, green t-shirts and green tea - Greens Leader Bob Brown refused to predict whether the Greens would hold the balance of power in the Victorian parliament after the November 27 poll.


"I can tell you as national leader of the party, it's very important to have confidence when you are getting a small number of people into a parliament, that they will all be performers, that they will all be able to hold their own and not only that, produce good results for the electorate," he told reporters.

"I feel that confidence with these candidates in Victoria."

Up to four inner Melbourne Labor seats are under direct attack from Greens candidates, including Richmond where the campaign launch was held on Sunday afternoon.

Senator Brown predicted a greater Greens presence in the Victorian parliament - where it has upper house MPs, but no-one in the lower house - than ever before.

But he would not say whether the minor party would hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

"We will have the biggest vote ever in Victorian history," he said.

"I've been in this business far too long to make precise predictions about who may win and who may not, but all I know is we are prepared to put in the hard yards, put in the work and get our very, very optimistic and responsible policies out to the voters."

Earlier, during the launch, new MP for the federal seat of Melbourne Adam Bandt and senator-elect Richard De Natale were received as conquering heroes.

The pair talked of their inroads into federal policy during their "five minutes" so far supporting a minority government.

Dr De Natale said a Green-tide was sweeping the nation.

"Some of our biggest swingsoccurred in regional Victoria in the last election," he said.

And Mr Bandt said that the party's federal gains would be repeated in Victoria.

Voting preferences will play a crucial role in the outcome of the Victorian election, but Senator Brown was adamant his party was not in the business of striking preference deals.

"I haven't heard Liberal or Labor say where their preferences are going, and we are not a preference machine," he said. "We're in this to get first votes, to get people to vote 1 Green.

"We are not a faction, we're not a ginger group, we're not a preference group, we're not a lobby group.

"We are now a dinkum major political party which is replacing the old, the incapable, the rusty and Labor and Liberal parties."

Two threads about the greens on the front page and both of them waffle.

Good for you, nice to see you are keeping up with the spamming imcrook