December 11th, 2022Election lessons

From: Ross Redwin, Creswick

The latest Victorian election results, particularly the results in the seats of
Ripon, Eureka, Wendouree and Melton have some very particular lessons for
the Liberal/National Party Coalition.

These seats were made the focus of a protracted campaign around the
construction of the WVTNP. The LNP seeded a campaign fronted by local
protagonists opposed to this project.
Let me be clear that the campaign was based on absolute lies. Claims as ridiculous
as the towers would be 165m high to farming would cease through the proposed
corridor, and sought to blame this federal project on the Victorian Labor government.
This project is absolutely necessary for the achievement of Victoria’s emissions
reduction targets, and as such the opposition to it was a political campaign designed
to capitalise on the sentiments of climate change deniers.
This campaign has been roundly repudiated by the voters in the four seats most
affected by this campaign.
Louise Staley, a major player in this campaign, lost her seat of Ripon to Labor on
a 2.39 per cent swing, Wendouree and Melton were retained by Labor with swings
of 3.37 per cent and 0.92 per cent respectively to Labor and Eureka was retained by
Labor with a 5.23 per cent swing against it, in part due to issues in Bacchus Marsh
around contaminated soil disposal.
The lesson in this for the LNP is stop the bullshit and stop playing politics with
the environment.