Polwarth back in Labor’s sights

HUTCH Hussein fell less than 830 votes short of victory at the 2022 Victorian election and immediately knew she wanted to try again.

Labor has preselected Hussein to recontest the Liberal-held seat of Polwarth in November, with official campaign launches planned in the coming weeks.

ABC election analyst Antony Green briefly and incorrectly declared Polwarth for Labor during the 2022 count, a moment Hussein recalled this week as both surprising and humbling.

“To be honest with you, it was a bit of a rollercoaster night, being told you’ve won and then being told you haven’t won,” she said.

“Fundamentally, it meant all we needed to do this time was to get 823 people to shift their votes. So that’s what has motivated me to put my hand up again and earn the support of the community.”

A redistribution ahead of the 2022 election reduced Liberal MP Richard Riordan’s lead in Polwarth to marginal. Hussein said she was proud to have cut the margin further to 1.8 per cent after only four months of campaigning, with the final two-party preferred gap sitting at 1,644 votes.

“We had such encouraging conversations [in 2022],” she said. “We lobbied and secured $19 million in investment for an electorate that hadn’t had the support and investment in previous years or decades.”

Hussein said much had changed in the four years between polls, citing the 5,000 people who had moved into Torquay and the new families moving into Winchelsea and Colac.

“The demographics are constantly changing; loyalties are shifting,”she said.

“I think there’s no such thing as a safe seat any more and a seat that’s held by 1.8 per cent shouldn’t be taken for granted by anyone.”

Because the margin was so close in 2022, Hussein said her request for an earlier preselection was granted, and she now has more than six months to make her pitch to Polwarth voters.

A Labor win in November would deliver the party a fourth consecutive term in government.

Hussein said she understood some voters may be drawn to an “it’s time” argument after 12 years of Labor government, but believed the party still had more to deliver.

“I would ask people to judge us on our record and say that there’s actually still more to do,” she said.

Hussein will launch her Melbourne campaign alongside federal social services minister Tanya Plibersek in the Melbourne CBD on 10 June. A campaign launch will follow for Colac supporters on 16 August.

A Torquay launch is also planned, although Hussein said details were still being finalised.