{"id":919427,"date":"2026-10-07T13:22:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919427\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:22:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:22:24","slug":"victorian-state-election-greens-target-labor-heartlands-as-voters-express-frustration-over-housing-and-cost-of-living","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919427\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian state election: Greens target Labor heartlands as voters express frustration over housing and cost-of-living"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Angus<\/p>\n

October 7, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm<\/p>\n

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Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell last month sat in the middle of a semi-forbidden Carlton median strip<\/a> sipping a canned yuzu gin spritz when a resident walked past and shouted out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m voting Greens this time,\u201d they said. \u201cI\u2019m a Labor voter [but] I\u2019m so fed up with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"VictorianVictorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell says many voters she\u2019s encountered are disillusioned with Labor. Luis Enrique Ascui<\/p>\n

This voter was angry with Labor\u2019s decision to knock down Melbourne\u2019s public housing towers<\/a>, and Sandell says she\u2019s having this conversation with voters in unprecedented numbers.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s about public housing, cost-of-living, corruption, climate action or Palestinian rights, Sandell said frustration with Labor after 12 years in government had hit boiling point. At November\u2019s state election, the Greens hope to capitalise on that, with eight lower house seats in their sights.<\/p>\n

But while Labor\u2019s primary vote has gone backwards, support for the Greens in polls \u2013 including The Age\u2019s Resolve Political Monitor<\/a> \u2013 has remained stubbornly flat around 12 per cent. At the same time, One Nation has risen dramatically, raising questions about whether the Greens\u2019 progressive policies will appeal to disaffected voters looking for an alternative to the major parties.<\/p>\n

For her part, Sandell is confident the party can cut through, similarly to Zohran Mamdani\u2019s striking win in the New York mayoral election<\/a> and the widening appeal of the UK Greens under Zack Polanski\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the Labor Party isn\u2019t going to create the level of change that we need, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve been saying all along we\u2019re not here to just make them better; we\u2019re here to replace them,\u201d Sandell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why our policy platform this election is bold. It goes big. It talks about some of the really big issues that people are facing \u2026 and is really taking a leaf out of the Mamdani playbook and the Polanski playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greens will on Thursday unveil a policy pulled almost straight from the Mamdani playbook: $350 million to trial 10 publicly owned supermarkets across Victoria, which would sell essentials for 30 per cent less than Coles and Woolworths.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Zohran<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf publicly owned supermarkets can work in New York, they can work in Victoria. Zohran Mamdani has shown there\u2019s nothing inevitable about giant corporations getting richer while ordinary people struggle to afford food \u2013 and we can change things,\u201d Sandell said.<\/p>\n

It echoes calls from the party\u2019s think tank<\/a>, The Green Institute, for the forced sale of 200 Coles and Woolworths supermarkets to be replaced with publicly owned grocers. The Victorian Greens policy \u2013 to be paid for by taxing the banking and gambling industries \u2013 claims the average household would save about $4274 a year on their grocery bill.<\/p>\n

Allan Fels, the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said the supermarket industry was too concentrated, but the Greens policy would be immensely challenging to realise given the need to develop supply chains, keep prices low, hire experienced management and operate at scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greens have been good at publicising the problem \u2026 but their solution does not look very practical,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Beyond public supermarkets, the Greens are campaigning on a platform of affordable housing, free public transport, urgently transitioning to renewables, and placing a moratorium on data centres.<\/p>\n

The rapid rollout of data centres near homes \u2013 which delivered $5.8 billion in capital expenditure to the Victorian economy last year \u2013 has become a political thorn in Labor\u2019s side<\/a>. The government last month announced that AI infrastructure must be at least 150 metres from homes, along with restrictions on water and electricity use, but angst remains for residents<\/a> living across from existing data centres.<\/p>\n

\"GreensGreens candidate for Footscray Elena Pereyra door knocking in the electorate. Penny Stephens<\/p>\n

Nowhere is there more data centre-driven anger than in the electorate of Footscray, which Labor has held for 99 years and where NextDC\u2019s sprawling data centre will eventually occupy<\/a> about 10 hectares.<\/p>\n

The Greens\u2019 candidate for Footscray Elena Pereyra said data centres fed into a feeling that inner-west voters had been abandoned and taken for granted by Labor.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Data<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they open their eyes to the data centres, they start to notice other things as well, and … [are] starting to recognise this would absolutely not be acceptable in other places in Melbourne,\u201d Pereyra tells The Age over hibiscus tea at Khartoum cafe in Footscray.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s door-knocking data indicates they\u2019re expecting an 8.6 per cent swing which would overcome Labor\u2019s 4.2 per cent margin. Although there was an 11.8 per cent swing away from Labor in 2022, support for the Greens picked up by just 2.2 per cent, while the Victorian Socialists attracted 9.3 per cent of the primary vote.<\/p>\n

Jasmine Duff, the Victorian Socialists candidate for Footscray, said the party sat entirely outside the political establishment and, unlike the Greens, actively sought to end capitalism, which she blamed for homelessness and poverty in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe big reason that people are coming over to us is that they can see capitalism is broken. It is a system that is not built to meet the needs of the working class.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pereyra said she expected Labor\u2019s vote to fracture in interesting ways, but that the Greens had upped their presence in Footscray significantly since 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe loyalty that people have shown to Labor, they\u2019re really feeling like that hasn\u2019t been rewarded after all of this time, and so I think it\u2019s just an opportunity for them to have a voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GreensGreens candidate for Pascoe Vale Angelica Panopoulos.Chris Hopkins<\/p>\n

The Greens are hopeful this sentiment has carried into Melbourne\u2019s inner north, too, and enable the party to hold Brunswick, and wrest Northcote, Preston and Pascoe Vale from Labor.<\/p>\n

Greens candidate for Pascoe Vale Angelica Panopoulos said the once-heartland Labor seat had suffered from underinvestment by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201dPeople who have lived here for decades, people from all walks of life are fed up, and they\u2019re looking for an alternative,\u201d said Panopoulos, a former mayor of Merri-bek Council.<\/p>\n

But Monash University political scientist Zareh Ghazarian said the rise of One Nation could harm the Greens in inner-city seats, like Pascoe Vale, because voters worried about far-right populism see Labor as a safe harbour for their vote.<\/p>\n

Premier Ben Carroll is plotting a repeat of the federal election, where the Greens pinned losing key seats in part on voters trying to keep Peter Dutton and the Coalition in opposition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are out there making sure we win Greens seats,\u201d the Labor leader said this week.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Greens<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greens have the task of convincing voters as to why they should be supported this election,\u201d Ghazarian said. \u201cThe toughest challenges will be in those inner-urban electorates where they\u2019ve traditionally done well, but Labor is strengthened following on what happened in the 2025 election.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was most obvious in the seat of Melbourne, where then-leader Adam Bandt was turfed out by Labor\u2019s Sarah Witty.<\/p>\n

Sandell, who is the state MP for Melbourne, expressed confidence this would be a \u201cfundamentally different election\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greens are here to provide a progressive, a bold, but a hopeful and positive alternative to those major parties, for people who are deeply fed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

CORRECTION<\/p>\n

An earlier version of this article said the Greens\u2019 supermarket policy would cost $1 billion over four years. It has been corrected to say the policy would cost $350 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"AngusAngus Delaney<\/a> is a state political reporter at The Age. Email him at angus.delaney@theage.com.au or contact him securely on Signal at angusdelaney.31Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 7, 2026 \u2014 7:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919428,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-919427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}