Results - Greens elected, but Labor may retain control of the Upper House

Election day went well. I handed out how-to-vote cards at several booths in Box Hill. Voters were mostly very polite, and other party workers were too.

The Labor party had lots of people on the booths, many from the West.

So what is the outcome at this point in time?

The Green vote on Box Hill is at 13.98%, down from 15.70% in 2002 (when there were 3 candidates). It was encouraging that the Green vote stayed strong in the face of significant attacks (and some lies) from both Labor and Liberal parties about the Greens.

I would like to thank those Box Hill constituents who supported the Greens.

Robert Clark has won the seat - for which I congratulate him. His vote improved to 49.70% so the seat is still technically marginal, but Family First preferences easily put him across the line.

For the rest of the State

• The Greens Greg Barber looks like a certainty for the Upper House in Northern Metropolitan region
• The Greens Sue Pennecuik looks like a certainty for the Upper House in Southern Metropolitan region
• Bill Pemberton, Marcus Ward and Louis De Lacretaz are still in contention for Eastern Metropolitan, Western Victoria and Eastern Victoria regions.
• Richard DiNatale lost out to Brownwen Pike in Melbourne, but is was close, and Labor threw lots of lies and misinformation into the campaign.
• The Greens did not win any lower house seat.
• Labor preferences nearly elected the pro nuclear power and weapons DLP to Northern Metropolitan, and they still might elect them to Western Victoria! More very dodgy Labor preference deals.
• Labor preferences nearly elected the hunting/shooting/logging/duck shooting Country Alliance party to in Northern Victoria region.

On Greens preference, the truth is that:

• The Greens directed preferences to Labor in 60 of the 88 lower house seats, including all Labor marginal seats.
  
• In the remaining 28 seats, the Greens left the choice on preferences to voters by offering split or open tickets, as they have done in the past.
  
• Labor retained many seats due to Greens preferences (such as Burwood and Ferntree Gully), and lost none due to split or open tickets. Labor did lose Morwell, where the Greens ran a split, but the National won the seat rather then the Liberals.
  
• The Greens did not preference the Liberals in any seats.

Both major parties now use well orchestrated political tactics to attack the Greens rather than engaging in a fair and reasonable debate about policies. More information on these tactics is available here.

It was very dissappointing that both major parties ruled out any preference negotiations on issues. For them the political game is penultimate, not climate change, forests, water, public education or industrial relations.

Logging of our water catchments and old growth forests continues.

I don't believe that the means justifies the end, and I think that major party politics is compromising our values, our environment and our society, and is not delivering for the people of Victoria.

Why do we have to wait for an election campaign for our school buildings to be fixed, or for public tranport to be improved?

Be careful who you vote for, what you see is not always what you get.