Greens eyeing off five Melbourne seats in hopes of hung parliament
The Age
October 21, 2021


Four Victorian electorates will be key to the Greens’ plan to push Labor into a power-sharing arrangement if the next federal election delivers a hung parliament, as the party opts for a more moderate path to take on the major parties.   



The Greens will run candidates in all 10 federal lower house seats as well as a Queensland senate seat. Leader Adam Bandt has revealed the 11 electorates the party is targeting, include the five Melbourne seats of Cooper, Wills, Kooyong, Macnamara and Higgins.

Following the latest boundary changes in Western Australia and Victoria, the Greens commissioned new modelling by the Parliamentary Library which shows that Labor would need a two-party preferred swing of 3.28 per cent on election day to beat the Coalition and govern in its own right after the election.

But the Greens are banking on a uniform swing closer to three per cent which would likely deliver a minority government with Labor potentially forced into a power-sharing arrangement with the Greens and other crossbenchers.

In contrast to the 2019 poll where the Greens failed to boost their numbers in the lower house, Mr Bandt, the member for the seat of Melbourne, said the party had already started campaigning and would focus its efforts on areas where “the Greens vote is strong, and where a small shift can get us over the line”.

“We’ve identified a list of 10 seats ...we have already begun campaigning in those seats, preselected candidates and began a really strong Melbourne-style people-powered campaign...and early indications from many of those seats where we’ve been campaigning for a while are good.”


As part of their power-sharing plan, the Greens will pour resources into the Labor-held seat of Wills in Melbourne’s inner northwest which takes in the suburbs of Brunswick, Coburg and Pascoe Vale where the first-time candidate Sarah Jefford, a surrogacy lawyer, will be the party’s candidate.

Ms Jefford will face a tough fight against Labor’s Peter Khalil following a strong swing towards him in the 2019 election, but would make history as the first woman elected to represent the seat which was held by former prime minister Bob Hawke.



The Greens also have their sights on three adjoining seats south of the Yarra River including the Labor-held electorate of Macnamara which includes Port Melbourne, South Melbourne, Middle Park and St Kilda.

Two-time Greens candidate Steph Hodgins-May will take on Labor’s Josh Burns who also managed to increase Labor’s margin at the last election.



The Greens are also banking on the possibility of knocking out Treasurer Josh Frydenberg in his blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong and Katie Allen in the neighbouring seat of Higgins where the party received strong swings in 2019.

As part of the party's strategy, the Greens will use the return of Barnaby Joyce and his recent objections to the 2050 net-zero targets try and convince more progressive Liberal voters to reject the Coalition based on the Nationals leader, not their local MP.

"The rest of the world, and the rest of Australia, is now catching up with what the Greens have been saying for some time," Mr Bandt said. "We now have US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for the kind of climate action that only the Greens are calling for in Australia."

"I didn't think that I'd find myself in this job saying nice things about UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but here we are."

Greens leader Adam Bandt believes Barnaby Joyce’s stance on 2050 net-zero targets could benefit his party.


Mr Bandt said the campaigns would highlight that "no matter what your Liberal MP says locally and how powerful they are, when they go to Canberra they do what Barnaby Joyce says".

The Greens used a similar tactic at the last election which was held just months after the more moderate Malcolm Turnbull was challenged by conservative Peter Dutton and ultimately lost the prime ministership to Scott Morrison. While Mr Frydenberg held his seat comfortably after preferences, the Coalition suffered a significant swing.

While the Greens will try to woo more progressive voters in Labor-held seats, in Liberal electorates they will target more affluent and traditionally conservative voters who have enough cash and power not to be troubled by the hip-pocket issues like jobs, taxation and cost of living concerns, freeing them up to embrace social concerns.

RELATED ARTICLE
Greens leader Adam Bandt wants to “soak the rich”.
Exclusive
Public housing
Greens promise huge cash splash to build 1 million affordable homes
"People in Liberal seats should know, they can vote greens and get a safe pair of hands," Mr Bandt said.