Southern Metropolitan

Southern Metropolitan covers the bayside electorates of Albert Park, Brighton and Sandringham, and extends inland through mostly strong Liberal territory to the more marginal reaches of Burwood and Oakleigh. Labor held only Albert Park and Oakleigh in 2010, further adding Bentleigh in 2014, while Prahran went from Liberal to the Greens. The Liberals did badly enough in 2006 that they fell just short of winning a third seat, with Labor holding a second alongside one for the Greens, but they gained a seat from Labor in 2010 and retained in 2014.

The Greens have come very close to polling a quota in their own right at each of the three elections held under the present system, with preferences from left-wing micro-parties being sufficient to get them over the line each time. Preferences from micro-parties of the right, which were a particularly important feature in 2014, got the Liberals to a third quota in 2006 and 2014, while they made it off their own primary vote in 2010.

Labor candidates

Labor's only incumbent in Southern Metropolitan is Philip Dalidakis, a former chief executive of the Victorian Association of Forest Industries and staffer to Senator Stephen Conroy.

Dalidakis is aligned with the Right, and came to parliament after succeeding John Lenders as top candidate on the Southern Metropolitan ticket upon the latter's retirement. He won a quick promotion to cabinet in July 2015, taking over the small business, innovation and trade portfolios after the resignation of Adem Somyurek.

The second candidate on the Labor ticket is Nina Taylor, a Glen Eira councillor and organiser for the Left-aligned Community and Public Sector Union.

Liberal candidates

The top three positions on the Liberal ticket are unchanged from the 2014 election, with David Davis once again holding top position, as he has done at the three previous elections held under the current system. A former chiropractor, Davis was first elected to the East Yarra upper house province in 1996. After promotion to the front bench in 2002, his front bench seniority waxed and waned with the fortunes of the Jeff Kennett-Ted Baillieu faction of which he formed part. He became Health Minister when Baillieu led the Liberals to power in 2010, and retained it to the 2014 election defeat. In opposition he has had responsibility for planning, and he exchanged local goverment for public transport in September 2017.

Georgie Crozier, who won election from third position in 2010 and won promotion to second on the retirement of Andrea Coote. Crozier attained parliamentary secretary status in March 2013, and won promotion to shadow cabinet after the 2014 defeat, holding families in children since that time, ane exchanging women for housing in September 2017.

Margaret Fitzherbert will again run in the precarious third position from which she was elected in 2014, having failed in a preselection bid to succeed Louise Asher in the safe lower house seat of Brighton. Fitzherbert won promotion shortly after her election to parliamentary secretary status, and currently holds the titles Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader and Shadow Assistant Minister for Health. She was previously a ministerial adviser to federal MPs Judi Moylan and David Kemp, and a director and board chair of the Royal Women's Hospital.

Other candidates

Sue Pennicuik is the last remaining of the three Greens members elected under the new upper house system in 2006, with Greg Barber and Colleen Hartland both having made way for newcomers over the past two years. Before entering parliament, Penniciuk held positions with the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and later worked as an information officer with the Australian Drug Foundation. She is currently the parliamentary party's spokesperson on education, arts, justice, corrections, police, racing and animal welfare.