Updated
Victorians have been severely underestimated by
Matthew Guy and his Coalition, according to the Premier Daniel Andrews,
who last night stormed to a second term as the Opposition fell apart at
the polls.
After less than 90 minutes of counting, the ABC's
election analyst Antony Green called the result for Labor, which is now
expected to seize about 55 seats in the state's 88-seat Lower House.The party now looks set to claim the eastern suburban seats of Box Hill, Burwood and Mount Waverley.
It has also enjoyed comfortable swings in Melbourne's "sandbelt" seats of Bentleigh, Carrum, Mordialloc and Frankston, which were crucial to its success.
But last night's result was disastrous for the Coalition, which was bruised at the ballot box.
The ABC's election computer is now forecasting the Opposition will win just 28 seats, compared to the 37 it had before the poll.
Mr Andrews said voters had seen past the Coalition's rhetoric on key social issues such as the North Richmond safe injecting room trial and the Safe Schools Program.
"This is the most progressive state in our nation. Victorians are smart. Victorians have big hearts," he told the ABC's Insiders program.
"The safe injecting facility saves lives. Safe Schools saves lives. And we've seen some pretty low-road campaigns against both of those initiatives," he said.
"Victorians, I think, are a lot more generous and a lot smarter than our opponents thought they were."They want big, broad, bold politics. Not this narrow, nasty stuff that was on offer, and it was rejected comprehensively yesterday."
This afternoon, Mr Andrews said the State Government would not be wasting any time.
"We've done the hard work to make sure we were ready to, as we did last time, to hit the ground running and to be delivering on all of our commitments," he said.
"Work more broadly will begin in earnest tomorrow but the Parliament will be back this year and we will introduce a number of bills."
The Government will also put the North East Link road project out to tender on Monday.
Mr Andrews has already flagged changes to his Cabinet.
'What's happened in Canberra has been a factor'
Last night's result has prompted soul searching within the Liberal Party, including over whether the knifing of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull affected its chances in Victoria.
Corangamite MP Sarah Henderson acknowledged the party's leadership issues played a part in the result.
"Yes, of course, what happened in Canberra has been a factor," she said.Victorian Nationals MP Tim Bull, who was re-elected to his safe Gippsland East seat, said the Coalition needed to rethink its tough-on-crime approach because it failed to resonate with regional voters.
"We were able to slightly increase our two-party-preferred vote in Gippsland South and Gippsland East, so I think our [local] policies here were effective," he said.
"In Melbourne, I think the Liberals had a pretty strong focus on crime and law and order and community safety.
"No doubt the polling would indicate that that didn't resonate as well as they'd hope, so that platform will certainly be something that our metropolitan colleagues will be having a close look at."
The devastating result has also sparked calls for Victorian Liberal Party president Michael Kroger to stand down.
"I will say this, if there's one person who should stand down tonight it is Michael Kroger," former Liberal premier Jeff Kennett told Channel Seven last night.
"Because I think his leadership of the party over recent times has been appalling."
Public unable to resist big spending, Liberals say
But this morning Mr Kroger, who will not recontest the presidency in March, said he saw no reason to resign."Presidents aren't running for election in elections," he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
He instead praised the party for running "a very good campaign".
"We spent more on this campaign than ever before," Mr Kroger said.
"It's hard for a public to resist huge amounts of public expenditure and we think overwhelmingly that's what's happened ultimately in this election," he said."We were beaten on policy in this election … Andrews did a good job as Premier, you'd be foolish to deny that.
"No one's saying the parliamentary party has stuffed this up."
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