Victorian Election 2022 – Results & Policies
On Saturday 26 November 2022, Victorians went to the polls and voted for a third term of majority Labor government.
The Victorian Labor Party, led by Premier Daniel Andrews, has secured at least 51 seats in the Legislative Assembly, with seven still in doubt. Of the seven seats in doubt, the Labor Party is ahead in four (Bass, Hastings, Northcote, and Preston), with the Liberals slightly ahead in Pakenham. Labor could potentially finish the count with up to 56 seats, an increase of one on the 2018 result, however, is more likely to finish on 54 or 55 pending on the results in Pakenham and Bass.
While the count is still underway, key results include Labor’s Jackson Taylor holding on to his seat of Bayswater, after it had become notionally Liberal after redistribution. Labor’s John Mullahy has defeated former Member for Forest Hill, Neil Angus, in the new seat of Glen Waverly. Other good news for Labor in the east of Melbourne includes retaining Ringwood with a 5% swing toward Will Fowles, Box Hill with 3.5% swing to Labor’s Paul Hamer, and Ashwood with 4.2% swing to Matt Fregon, former Member for Mount Waverly.
Labor also unseated Liberal, Louise Staley, in the district of Ripon. The seat became notionally Labor after redistribution, and Staley did not see a big enough swing towards her to hold on to her seat in parliament.
The Liberal Party won back the Mornington Peninsula electoral district of Nepean, after Labor unexpectedly picked up the seat in the 2018 ‘Danslide’. After losing the seat of Hawthorn to Labor in 2018, John Pesutto has won the seat back, defeating independent candidate Melissa Lowe.
The Greens have picked up Richmond from the ALP, after the retirement of long-serving Labor Minister Richard Wynne.
The Nationals have unseated regional independents Ali Cupper in Mildura and Suzanna Sheed in Shepparton, in addition to winning back the notionally Labor, independent held, seat of Morwell. First held by the Nationals in 2006, the sitting Member for Morwell resigned from the Nationals in 2017 to sit as an independent.
No independents have won seats in the Legislative Assembly.
| Party | Old Assembly | New Assembly |
| Australian Labor Party | 55 | 51-56 |
| Liberal Party | 21 | 17-21 |
| The Nationals | 6 | 9 |
| Australian Greens | 3 | 4 |
| Independent | 3 | 0 |
Legislative Council
Early results indicate that the Labor Party has 15 seats in the upper house, down from 18.
The Liberals have increased their presence from 11 to 13.
The Greens also picked up two new spots, with a total of three.
The Animal Justice Party’s Georgie Purcell was elected to the fifth spot in Northern Victoria Region.
Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party, Sustainable Australia Party, and the Transport Matters Party, all lost their seats in the Council.
As the count has progressed, Reason Party leader Fiona Patten is likely to lose her Legislative Council seat to former Labor MP, Adem Somyurek, who ran with the Democratic Labour Party.
| Party | Old Council | New Council |
| Australian Labor Party | 18 | 15 |
| Liberal Party | 11 | 13 |
| Australian Greens | 1 | 3 |
| Legalise Cannabis | 0 | 3 |
| The Nationals | 0 | 2 |
| Animal Justice Party | 1 | 1 |
| Democratic Labour Party | 0 | 1 |
| Shooters Fishers and Farmers | 1 | 1 |
| One Nation | 0 | 1 |
| Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party | 3 | 0 |
| Sustainable Australia Party | 1 | 0 |
| Transport Matters Party | 1 | 0 |
| Fiona Patten’s Reason Party | 1 | 0 |
Policies and Commitments
The Victorian Labor Party sought re-election on several commitments aimed at relieving cost of living pressures, fixing the health system, and boosting the Victorian economy post-COVID. The following are some of Labor’s key policies:
One of the major commitments of the campaign was to bring back the State Electricity Commission (SEC), with an initial investment of $1 billion to create 4.5 gigawatts of renewable energy. 6,000 of the 59,000 jobs supported by the return of the SEC will be reserved for apprentices. The Labor Government will also introduce another round of the $250 power-saving bonus from March 2023, at a cost of $400 million.
Labor plans to make three and four-year-old kinder free, saving families up to $2,500 per child, per year. This is in addition to opening 50 new government owned and run childcare centres to address the shortage of kinder places. This will cost $9 billion over the next decade.
The Andrews Labor Government had already put over 70 courses on the Free TAFE list prior to the election, and has committed to expanding the eligibility for Free TAFE to Victorians who already have higher qualifications. Labor’s Free TAFE policy will cost $186 million to 2027.
Labor is also building a new Royal Melbourne Hospital and Royal Women’s Hospital alongside the Metro Tunnel’s Arden Station. The existing Parkville home of the Royal Melbourne and Royal Women’s Hospitals will be redeveloped and expanded. Initial investment of $2.5 billion kicks off the 12-year project costing $5-6 billion.
Labor is expanding free IVF, investing an additional $13.6 million into the Australian-first public IVF service. The Government is also making it free to train as a nurse or midwife in Victoria, with over 10,000 students to have the cost of their nursing or midwifery undergraduate studies paid for.
In the final weeks of the campaign, Labor announced its policy to provide free pads and tampons in 1,500 pad and tampon dispensing machines installed at up to 700 sites including public hospitals, courts, TAFEs, libraries, and train stations. This is expected to cost $23 million.
Labor is continuing major investment in public transport infrastructure, committing to remove 110 level crossings by 2030, and continuing with the transformative Suburban Rail Loop (SRL). SRL East is expected to cost between $30-34.5 billion, with $11.8 billion committed in the 2022-23 Budget.
During the election campaign, Labor committed to cap regional public transport fares at the metro rate ($9.20). This will cost $10.1 million in 2022-23, totaling $203.3 million to 2027. The Government also promised to add almost 200 weekend services on regional lines and build another 23 VLocity trains in Victoria.
Next Steps
The Parliamentary Labor Caucus is expected to meet late this week, or early next week, to decide who will be in the next Andrews Ministry.
The Victorian Electoral Commission will return the writs to the Governor of Victoria on the 17th of December, with Parliament to sit the week beginning 19th December.
Further information
For more information, please contact your Hawker Britton Victorian Directors JP Blandthorn on +61 3 9034 3021 and Emma Webster on +61 3 9034 3020.
Further Hawker Britton Occasional Papers are available here.