By “On The Ground in Melbourne”

There has been a marked difference in the pace of the campaigns being waged by the Greens’ Adam Bandt and Labor’s Cath Bowtell here in the marginal seat of Melbourne.  While both have increased their activity in the lead up to polling day, the Greens’ campaign is moving at a faster pace than the Labor campaign.

The Greens’ campaign continues to draw in young activists keen to be, what the Greens are calling, part of history.  The ALP campaign is also drawing in activists but not quite to the same extent.  The ALP’s races in other marginal seats is drawing people away and making fewer activists available to the Bowtell campaign.  It also seems that Tanner is not making any significant efforts to assist the Bowtell campaign, disappointing many former Tanner supporters.

There are also some concerns Bowtell’s messages about supporting same-sex marriage and strong action on climate change aren’t cutting through, with the media attention focused on the national campaign. Local suburban newspapers however are a different story entirely with lots of coverage but not necessarily the kind either Bowtell or Bandt would like; the online version of the suburban papers are more active with lots of comments but mostly from the party faithful and trolls.

Unbelievably there has been a lack of serious animosity between the Labor and Greens camps, something many local pundits had expected.  There has been though, as predicted, the usual sort of yard sign tampering. Already there’s been some creative methods of defacing yard signs, although both sides are complaining about the number of signs being taken down.

As has been reported so far, there still remains little evidence of a Liberal Party campaign. Other than the usual kind of election campaign activity, there’s been really nothing much happening in the Liberal camp. It’s entirely possible they are playing down their campaign in order to run third to the Greens; where they can direct preferences to the Greens, and see the seat snatched from Labor.

The next two weeks will prove to be truly exciting as the race for Melbourne really heats up.  We should be in for a good show as the Bowtell team will hit their strides soon.  The Bandt campaign needs to keep up their momentum and energy.  The Liberals need to start being more regularly seen, if they want to be seen at all in this election.

Tags: adam bandt, cath bowtell, election melbourne, Greens, labor, Melbourne