By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Narrow ALP wins in the state seats of Bass and Pakenham have helped deliver an overall “strong mandate” to the State Government, a political expert says.
But voters in the marginal seats also hold the power to hold the government to account, says Monash University politics senior lecturer Dr Zareh Ghazarian.
Winning Labor MPs Jordan Crugnale (Bass) and Emma Vulin (Pakenham) would be expected to keep their promises, Dr Ghazarian said.
These included a major upgrade to Pakenham Secondary College, a dog park in Officer, planning for a Mental Health and Wellbeing Local in Officer and boat ramps in Lang Lang and Tooradin.
As marginal seats, Bass and Pakenham would “tend to be the focus” of the next election campaign, Dr Ghazarian said.
“Both major parties’ votes went down across the board, which means voters are happy to vote for alternative candidates if they feel the major parties are not representing them effectively.
“There’s volatility in the electorate. Voters can’t be taken for granted.”
The Opposition had been expected to win both seats but Ms Crugnale claimed Bass by a mere 202 votes, or 0.24 per cent and Ms Vulin by 307 votes or 0.39 per cent.
The results were emblematic of Labor’s triumphant 56-seat victory and Liberals’ struggles across the state, Dr Ghazarian said.
“Going into the election, the expectation was Labor would lose some votes, lose some support.
“The problem for the Coalition was it could not improve its primary vote. It’s losing support even after eight years in Opposition.”
Melbourne’s South East is now a sea of Labor MPs, except for Brad Battin in Berwick and one or two Liberals in the Upper House.
This was despite the Opposition out-bidding Labor with big-ticket promises in the growth corridor.
“That should be clearly sending a message to the Liberal party that there are things that it’s doing that are not resonating with voters.
“The Liberal party is struggling in all parts of the state.
“It’s not about winning marginal seats, it needs to reconnect with its traditional voters in additional to swinging voters.
“It finds itself in a difficult situation that suggests the trough hasn’t bottomed out.”
