Eastern Metropolitan

Eastern Metropolitan region extends from the lower house districts of Ivanhoe and Box Hill at the western end to Croydon and Bayswater in the east, and from Mount Waverley and Ferntree Gully in the south to Eltham in the north. Relative population decline in this area caused the region to be substantially changed by the redistribution before the 2014 election, with the addition of the Ivanhoe and Mount Waverley districts compensating for the abolition of Doncaster and Scoresby. This change was slightly to the disadvantage of the Liberals, but it did not so weaken them as to cost them the third seat they have won at each of the three elections held under the present Legislative Council regime.

What did change at the 2014 election was that the second left seat went to the Greens rather than Labor, despite both parties being slightly down on the primary vote. The crucial difference was the proliferation of micro-parties and the expansion of their electoral support, which compared with a situation in 2010 where the only starters other than the major parties and the Greens were Family First and the DLP, the effect of which is that all preferences flowed to Labor ahead of the Greens. By contrast, the Greens in 2014 gained significant flows of preferences the Sex Party, Animal Justice and the Voluntary Euthanasia Party, allowing their lead candidate, Samantha Dunn, to finish the count with 70,358 votes against 66,498 for defeated Labor incumbent Brian Tee.

Labor candidates

Labor's sole remaining member after the loss of its second seat in 2014 is Shaun Leane, whose background is with the Left faction Electrical Trades Union. Leane first won preselection at the 2006 election as part of a deal with the Right that included his union’s support for Bill Shorten to depose Bob Sercombe in the seat of Maribyrnong. Despite his position at the top of the ticket, Leane took until the 2014 election to win promotion to his present rank as parliamentary secretary, current in the transport in the transport and infrastructure portfolios.

Second on the Labor ticket is Sonja Terpstra, a local teacher and community activist who unsuccessfully sought preselection to succeed Jenny Macklin in the federal seat of Jagajaga.

Liberal candidates

The Liberal ticket is again headed by the candidates who were elected in 2014. In first place is Mary Wooldridge, who came to the seat in 2014 after the abolition of her lower house seat of Doncaster, which she had held since 2006. Wooldridge had been made a shadow minister immediately upon her election, and served in the Baillieu-Napthine government in the mental health and community services portfolios. However, she was in danger of being left high and dry when Doncaster was abolished, and she lost out to Tim Smith in her bid for preselection to the safe seat of Kew, despite having the backing of the then Premier, Denis Napthine. There were suggestions Bruce Atkinson might have to make way to accommodate Wooldridge in Eastern Metropolitan, but the situation was resolved when the Liberals' other Eastern Metropolitan MLC, Jan Kronberg, announced her retirement. Wooldridge was promoted up the front bench pecking order after the 2014 election defeat, and has since served as Shadow Health Minister.

Ths second Liberal candidate is Bruce Atkinson, who has been the Council's president since after the 2010 election. He retained the position after the 2014 election against a rival nomination from Labor's Gayle Tierney, securing decisive cross-bench support from the Greens and Fiona Patten of the Sex Party. Atkinson was first elected to parliament in 1992, representing Koonung province until the upper house reforms of 2006, and holding second position on the Eastern Metropolitan ticket at each of the four elections since.

With the retirement of the third elected Liberal from 2014, Richard Dalla-Riva, the third position on the ticket goes to Emanuele Cicchiello, former Knox mayor and deputy principal of Lighthouse Christian College Cranbourne. Other preselection nominees were included Nick Demiris, a former staffer to Abbott government minister and noted conservative Kevin Andrews, and Gladys Liu, a business consultant and former Baillieu government adviser specialising in China, who has lately nominated for the preselection succeed Julia Banks in the federal lower house seat of Chisholm.

Other candidates

The successful Greens candidate in 2014 was Samantha Dunn (left), who formerly represented Lyster ward on Yarra Ranges Shire Council. Dunn is the parliamentary party's spokesperson on forests, water, tourism, emergency services and local government.