Site link  VICTORIAN ELECTION 2018

Northern Metropolitan

Northern Metropolitan encompasses the Greens heartland seats of Melbourne, Richmond, Brunswick and Northcote at the southern end, from which it extends northwards through safe Labor territory as far as Criagieburn and Epping. Greens-held Melbourne is the only one of the region's eleven seats that is not held by Labor, who were strengthened still further by the redistribution before the last election, which added the very safe lower house electorates of Pascoe Vale and Yuroke and removed marginal Ivanhoe and Yan Yean.

The region's leftward lean tends to place it on the cusp of returning either four left member and one right, and three left and two right. The Greens have polled a full quota on the primary vote under each of the three elections under the new system, but the swing from Labor to Liberal in 2010 resulted in the Liberals gaining a second seat at the expense of Labor's third.

The micro-party and preference harvesting explosion of 2014 delivered a fourth “left” seat to the Sex Party, albeit one elected with preferences from Shooters and Fishers and the Liberal Democrats, together with less unlikely contributors such as the Greens, Animal Justice, the Voluntary Euthanasia Party. Far from retaining their second seat, the Liberals' second candidate dropped out of the count before Family First, who would thus have won a second “right” seat, had one been available.

Labor candidates

The top two places on the Labor ticket are unchanged from 2010 and 2014, with first position held by Jenny Mikakos. Mikakos's career in the Legislative Council began in 1999, when she defeated incumbent Pat Power for preselection to take a safe seat in Jika Jika province. A former Northcote councillor and taxation lawyer, Mikakos was at that time a member of the hard left Pledge faction, but would soon join the Socialist Left.

With the Legislative Council reforms of 2006, Mikakos took the second position on the Labor ticket in Northern Metropolitan region, before progressing to first in 2010. She attained only parliamentary secretary status in the Bracks-Brumby years, but won promotion to shadow cabinet after the 2010 election defeat, and has served as Minister for Families and Children and Youth Affairs since the election of the Andrews government in 2014.

Second on the Labor ticket is Nazih Elasmar, who was elected from number three in 2006 and promoted to two in 2010. A figurehead of the Lebanese community, Elasmar had previously been mayor of Darebin and an electorate officer to Theo Theophanous, a predecessor in Northern Metropolitan region. His factional alignment followed Theophanous in progressing from his Labor Renewal Alliance to Labor Unity (the Right).

The third Labor candidate is Burhan Yigit, an adviser to Small Business Minister Philip Dalidakis who also held this position on the ticket in 2014. A former mayor of Hume and Turkish community leader, Birgit had the support of a number of unions (including the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, National Union of Workers and Health Services Union on the Right, and the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union on the Left) to succeed John Brumby in Broadmeadows in 2011, but the the party’s administrative committee intervened to fast-track the preselection of Frank McGuire.

Liberal candidates

The Liberal ticket is headed by the party's sole incumbent, Craig Ondarchie, who won the second seat the Liberals were able to gain as they came to power in 2010. He moved to the top of the ticket in 2014 after Matthew Guy, who had held the Liberals' other seat since 2006, moved to the lower house seat of Bulleen, and promptly thereafter to the party leadership.

Ondarchie served as a parliamentary secretary from Denis Napthine's ascension to the leadership in April 2013 to the November 2014 election defeat, then won promotion to shadow cabinet in the investment and jobs and trade portfolios.

Second on the Liberal ticket is Evan Mulholland, media and communications manager at the Institute of Public Affairs.

Other candidates

The Greens incumbent is Samantha Ratnam, who filled the vacancy created by Greg Barber's retirement in September 2017. Barber was among the party's first ever complement of three upper house members after the reform of 2006, and had been parliamentary leader since the party first opted to have such a thing in 2010.

Ratnam was chosen to fill his vacancy by apparently universal acclaim, and was anointed as the party's parliamentary leader a month later. A former social worker and mayor of Moreland, Ratnam ran in the federal seat of Wills in 2016, where she fell 4.9% short of defeating the Labor candidate at the final preference count.

Northern Metropolitan region's other cross-bencher is Fiona Patten, who won a seat in 2014 for the Sex Party, which has since rebranded as the Reason Party. Patten is a former chief executive of adult industry body the Eros Association, and attained a high profile after establishing the Sex Party in 2009.

NORTHERN METROPOLITAN REGION MAP