Dear Paul,

Daniel Andrews has won a Third Term - and made history.
Victorians have cast their votes. The Liberals have lost
again. Hopefully Matthew Guy's career is not over yet. He
did manage to retain his seat - however I suspect that a
new leader will be elected. Assessments should be carefully
weighed up - and lessons learned - and action taken.

Ultimately a strong and welcome result.

The Liberals lost because there wasn't a good reason to vote for them.

They concentrated heavily on Daniel Andrews even going so far as to have a full colour photo on the back of their how to vote cards.

This is the first election where I can say the Murdoch coverage was a net detriment for the Lib's. The Libs got all caught up in what the Sun Herald was running. The story about the stairs on which Andrews had slipped becoming a front page story then saw our local member putting out a post referencing the same.
http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/politics/victoria-election-2022-liberal-mp-slammed-for-joke-about-daniel-andrews-spinal-injury/news-story/38035708a03de01bdfbffaa6eee87fbd

It looks like he has lost what was supposedly a safe Liberal seat.

I think Victorians got so heartedly turned off by the Murdoch press telling them what to think that Andrews collected votes he might not have expected. For him to increase his lead in the last week of polling reflected that plainly.

Hi Foxy and Steele,

The Murdoch gutter press has no relevance to young (under 40) progressive voters what so ever. The old out of touch mob who read that rag, are not influenced by it, but reassured by it. Should Murdoch print "Dan Andrews Is An Axe Murderer" it doesn't cause the Old Farts to vote hard right, they do that anyway, but just reinforces what they already "know".

There is a proposal before the NZ parliament to lower the voting age to 16, I'm all in favour. My 16 year old granddaughter is well informed on politics. Living in Queensland on Sunday night, she could name the Victorian Opposition leader Mathew Guy, more than most voting Victorians could do.

BTW, the comments of our "radical" Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe had no negative influence on the Green vote, in fact they may have been a positive for us.

Thanks Steele and Paul,

Victorian voters made their feelings clear. The Murdoch
Press had little effect. Even in early voting the Libs
handing out the leaflets had bad attitudes - telling
people "We've got to get rid of Daniel Andrews!" which
made people cringe while waiting in line. I suspect
it had an opposite result. These bully tactics no longer
work. But these old die-hards will never realize it,
they're so out of it.