THE recent state byelection result in Northcote where the Greens won the seat from Labor has made South Barwon an even more important seat in the lead up to next year\u2019s state election.<\/p>\n
If Labor loses more seats to the Greens at the November 2018 poll, Labor will need to take seats such as South Barwon off the Liberals to retain power.<\/p>\n
The November 18 result in Northcote saw the Greens\u2019 Lidia Thorpe defeat Labor candidate Clare Burns, signalling Labor\u2019s vulnerability to the Greens in inner Melbourne seats.<\/p>\n
South Barwon is held by Liberal MP Andrew Katos by a margin of 2.86 per cent.<\/p>\n
Labor\u2019s recently preselected South Barwon candidate Darren Cheeseman knows what it\u2019s like to hold a marginal seat, having won the federal seat of Corangamite in 2007 and retained it in 2010, when it was officially the most marginal seat in Australia.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve enormous experience campaigning in marginal seats,\u201d Mr Cheeseman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used Corangamite\u2019s marginal status to secure funding for a great deal of fantastic projects in the region. If elected to South Barwon as part of a re-elected Andrews government, I would use the skills and knowledge gained when I was Member for Corangamite to make sure that South Barwon wasn\u2019t taken for granted, and we got our share of the government infrastructure spending.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Cheeseman said he would campaign in a positive fashion in his bid to win over voters in South Barwon.<\/p>\n
Mr Katos said he was happy to stand on his track record of delivering infrastructure to the communities of South Barwon, and said the Greens were a problem for Labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Northcote, Daniel Andrews tried to go further left than the Greens and he was comprehensively beaten.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn seats like South Barwon, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to make any swinging voter think Labor won\u2019t keep going further left.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at what the government has done in South Barwon in the last two years. There\u2019s been very little activity. They were dragged kicking and screaming to the Jan Juc Surf Life Saving Club project, which was a credit to the community campaign for funding.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE recent state byelection result in Northcote where the Greens won the seat from Labor has made South Barwon an even more important seat in the lead up to next year\u2019s state election. If Labor loses more seats to the Greens at the November 2018 poll, Labor will need to take seats such as South […]<\/p>\n