Great result in Williamstown by-election!
The Greens vote in the Williamstown by-election on 15 September almost doubled from 12% to 22% of the vote.
Janet Rice was the Greens candidate.
I'm really pleased with the result. I'd like to thank everyone who helped on my campaign, and every single person who voted for me. People voted for me as a person who is passionate about both local issues and the future of the planet, and who has a track record of, and rock solid commitment to working hard with and for the community.
The election established the Greens as the real opposition in Williamstown, and we made great progress in turning the seat into a Green- Labor marginal seat. My vote of 22% was above the Liberal vote at the last two elections.
The ALP primary vote dropped 6 percentage points to 56% from 62% at the state election last November. This is a further fall from 2002 when their primary vote was 64%.
The ALP two party preferred vote dropped 10 percentage points from 74% to 64%. In 2002 their two party preferred vote was 76%.
This is a very poor result for Labor. A ‘stand-still' result for the ALP given the Liberals weren't standing would have been an increase in their primary vote. It shows what happens when you run a negative election campaign that promised nothing on the issues that the community really cares about.
The Greens vote peaked in Yarraville at 34%. I was only three votes short of winning the Yarraville booth on a two party preferred basis
The ALP vote was under 50% in four of the 15 booths. This is compared to just a year ago at the state election when the ALP vote was above 54% in all booths, and in 2002 when their vote was above 57% in all booths. It would be worth looking back through the historical records, but I suspect this would be the first election in the last hundred years in Williamstown where the Labor party has received less than 50% of the vote at any booth.'
Most of the Greens vote was taken off Labor, rather than what would otherwise have been Liberal votes. It appears that most of the Liberal vote went to independents, Family First and DLP. The ‘non Labor, non Green' primary vote was 22%, compared with 26% at the state election last year and 25% at 2002.'
I have congratulated Wade Noonan on his win.
I have asked him as the incoming member for Williamstown to work very hard on the issues I campaigned on, particularly the return of services to the Williamstown Hospital, getting truck traffic off our residential streets, and improving public transport services across the electorate. I intend to seek a meeting with him to discuss the full range of issues that the community raised with me through the campaign, and seek his support for action on them all.'
The other great thing about my vote is that it's a terrific lead in to the federal poll to be held by the end of the year. A similar result in the federal poll will be a significant boost to our chances of electing Richard Di Natale as the first Greens Senator for Victoria .