THE POLL BLUDGER
Victorian Legislative Assembly Election 2006

MELBOURNE
Labor 1.9% versus Greens

The electorate of Melbourne includes the CBD and areas to the west (the Docklands) and north (Carlton west to Flemington). It has been in Labor hands since 1908, barring a brief period in 1955 when member Tom Hayes defected to the Anti-Communist Labor Party as part of the cataclysmic Labor split. Hayes was defeated by the official Labor candidate at that year's election, and Labor resumed a safe hold on the seat that went untroubled until the Greens emerged as a new threat in 2002. Their candidate Richard Di Natale polled 23.3 per cent of the primary vote to relegate the Liberals to third place, and after preferences finished 3.5 per cent short of Labor member Bronwyn Pike (right) (who polled 46.7 per cent of the primary vote, down from the 59.3 per cent she polled with no opposition from the Greens in 1999).

A former Uniting Church official, head of the Victorian Council of Social Service and director of Greenpeace Australia, Pike's first preselection attempt was for the Mitcham by-election in 1997, in which she was defeated by Tony Robinson. Although unaligned at the time, Pike subsequently received backing from the Right for a successful preselection challenge against the Socialist Left member for Melbourne, Neil Cole; she is now herself associated with the Socialist Left. Pike was immediately elevated to the position of Housing and Aged Care Minister upon her election, to which she added the community services portfolio in February 2002. A further promotion following the 2002 election saw her entrusted with the all-important health portfolio. The Greens have again endorsed their almost-successful candidate from 2002, medical practitioner Richard Di Natale (left). Liberal candidate Steve Papas (right) is a certified practising accountant and former City of Melbourne treasurer.

ASSESSMENT: GREENS GAIN