Melbourne Byelection

[boomtown]

Can someone tell me why the Liberals did not run a candidate in the recent Melbourne byelection? I don't understand.

And the fact that Labour got home on Sex Party preferences - that is pretty funny. I wonder if Labour has to do any special favours for the Sex Party now.

 

[Rolf Latham]

Can someone tell me why the Liberals did not run a candidate in the recent Melbourne byelection? I don't understand.

And the fact that Labour got home on Sex Party preferences - that is pretty funny. I wonder if Labour has to do any special favours for the Sex Party now.

coz its safe Labour Greens seat............why waste a good candidate

ta
rolf

 

[Crabnet]

History says they had no chance of winning so why spend the money contesting and having to decide who to give their preference to? The Liberal preference policy is not to preference a Green candidate on their how to vote cards so they might help put Labor in anyway.

 

[Deltaberry]

Because the Coalition Government doesn't want to draw attention on itself in case the Melbourne by-election is seen as a referendum on the Coalition Government which is most likely in the Electoral Division of Melbourne.

 

[lizzie]

coz its safe Labour Greens seat............why waste a good candidate

ta
rolf

With such a large swing against ... would they really have needed a "good" candidate". A so-so one would have sufficed methinks.

 

[Tony3008]

SOP in the UK is to blood a new/young prospective candidate in a no-hope seat where if they make mistakes or don't pass muster, it doesn't matter. Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair both fought and lost their first elections in safe (for the other side) seats.

 

[Deltaberry]

Political players with good party room support don't fight in unsafe seats.

See Bill Shorten, Josh Frydenberg etc. Went straight for Maribynong and Kooyong.

 

[Dave_R]

Like others have said, the seat is very Left-leaning, so it wouldn't have made sense for the Libs to throw money down the drain by having a candidate that would have ended up an also-ran.