VICTORIAN STATE ELECTION

After four weeks of official campaigning, but nearly a year of lead up, the Victorian State election will take place this Saturday.

With half of voters expected to have voted prior to election day, polls are predicting a victory for the incumbent Labor party, with current Premier, the Hon Daniel Andrews MP, leading as the preferred Premier by 14% over the Leader of the Opposition, the Liberal Party’s Hon Matthew Guy MP.

Issues such as infrastructure, security and immigration have dominated the campaigns. Labor has promised to continue investing in large infrastructure projects and an increase in funding for the health sector, while the Liberals have pledged to build two major roads to accompany decentralisation measures targeting overpopulation.

In the wake of a fortnight that saw the recent terrorist attack on Bourke St, and the arrest of three men allegedly plotting another attack, law and order have also been high on the agenda, as the Opposition Leader has criticised Labor for being ‘soft on crime’.

It will be interesting to observe what implications this election will have on the campaigns of the NSW State and Federal elections in 2019, although its fair to say that federal politicians on both sides of the political spectrum have not been heavily involved (at least publicly) in the Victorian campaign.