Northern Victoria

Northern Victoria extends from the South Australian border to the upper reaches of the Murray River in Victoria’s north-east, without touching the coast. It gained the northern metropolitan fringe seat of Yan Yean in the redistribution before the 2014 election to compensate it for the abolition of Swan Hill, without significantly impacting the balance of party support.

Such was the strength of the micro-party vote in 2014 that the third candidate on the Coalition ticket was excluded ahead of both Shooters and Fishers, whose preference sources had included the Sex Party and Palmer United, and the Australian Country Alliance, which enjoyed the preferences of the DLP, Family First and Liberal Democrats. Coalition preferences then decided the result in favour of Shooters and Fishers, who also gained a seat in Eastern Victoria, establishing a presence in the state parliament for the first time.

Shooters and Fishers and the Country Alliance might both have won seats had the Greens finished ahead of the second Labor candidate, in which they fell short by just 42,704 votes to 42,543. In that case, Labor preferences would have flowed to the Country Alliance ahead of the Greens, effectively producing a four-to-one right-left result rather than three-to-two. Instead, the exclusion of the Greens ensured a second seat for Labor. The Country Alliance also failed only narrowly in 2010, though on that occasion their victim would have been the third Liberal.

Labor candidates

The Labor ticket is headed by Mark Gepp, who filled the casual vacancy created in June 2017 by the retirement of Steve Herbert, who had resigned from the ministry the previous November after being embarrassed by revelations his ministerial chaffeur had been used to transport his dogs. Herbert had in turn come to the seat in 2014 after previously holding the lower house seat of Eltham since 2002. Gepp worked as an adviser to Emergency Services Minister Jane Garrett up to her resignation over the Country Fire Authority enterprise bargaining dispute, and has been an official for Left unions including the Financial Sector Union and the Community and Public Sector Union. His preselection provoked a dispute as to whether the party's affirmative actions demanded the seat should go to a woman, in which both sides proffered conflicting legal advice.

Remaining in second place on the Labor ticket is Jaclyn Symes, who has been leapfrogged by Gepp as part of factional arrangements that reserve the top position for the Left and the second for the Right. Symes first entered parliament in 2014, having earlier been an adviser and electorate officer to Rob Hulls.

Coalition candidates

The Coalition agreement grants the Nationals the second spot on the ticket in Northern Victoria, with Liberals occupying the safe top position and the loseable third. Maintaining top position for the fourth election running is Wendy Lovell, who was first elected to North Eastern province in the last election under the old system in 2002. Lovell served as Minister for Housing and Childhood and Early Development through the Baillieu-Napthine government, but was dropped to a whip position amid the shake-up after the 2014 election defeat.

The Nationals' position is filled by Luke O'Sullivan, former chief-of-staff to state party leader Peter Walsh who has served in the upper house since 2016. O'Sullivan filled the vacancy created when Damian Drum abandoned his seat, which he had held since 2002, for a successful run at the federal seat of Murray.

Other candidates

The Shooters Fishers and Farmers seat is held by Daniel Young (left), who was a 26-year-old tradesman working in steel fabrication at the time of his election in 2014.

The Greens' lead candidate is Nicole Rowan, a lawyer who works for TaxBanter, a firm providing professional tax training for businesses.