Melbourne outer electorates such as Melton to be key campaign areas

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The election result comes down to a number of seats won in parliament house some of those seats are held pretty safely by the major parties or independents others are line ball and that's where this will be won and lost. Melbourne's outer suburbs are one area that will draw significant attention from the major parties in the lead up to the election.

Transcript

00:00We're out here in Melton. Now, Melton's about an hour's drive from the Melbourne CBD, but

00:06it's considered an outer suburb of Melbourne that feels like its own locality, own town.

00:12It's in the electorate of Hawke. Now, Hawke is considered safe. It was established the

00:16last election, and it's held by Sam Ray on a margin of 7.6%. And it's part of the Red

00:22Wall of traditionally Labor-held seats out to the west of Melbourne and into the western

00:27part of regional Victoria here. Now, its neighbour as well, McEwen, which is marginal,

00:32held on 5.3% margin by ALP's Rob Mitchell. The two seats and other ones around here as

00:39well are shaping up to be targeted by the Liberal Party, and both are shaping up to

00:43be contests between Labor and the Liberals out here. Now, the Liberals will be hoping

00:48to make the most of what's seen as disaffection with state Labor here and hoping to translate

00:55that to a federal level. Speaking to people around the streets here, it does really seem

01:00like the cost of living, as is the case in many other parts of the country and state,

01:05is a real issue. In this part in Melton, about 50% of households have a mortgage. So those

01:11cost of living pressures, inflation, rising interest rates have been keenly felt here.

01:16I spoke to some people on the street a bit earlier.

01:19The train line needs to be electrified. The freeway is a disaster. It's just a car park.

01:27Melton has been like, you know, there's like crime all over the place at the moment, so

01:31I think that's one of the biggest things that they may need to have attention.

01:36The Melton Hospital, honestly, I think we've been promised that for a while now, and I

01:39think we really need that hospital to be made. I think it's about time.

01:43Of particular interest out here as well is the multicultural vote. So in households around

01:48these major municipalities around here, which are on the freeways heading out of town from

01:52Melbourne, there's a really high percentage of people who speak a language other than

01:57English at home. So the Liberals will be hoping to lean in to appealing to them and to these

02:02disaffected state Labor voters in an effort to flip these seats and hopefully flip the

02:06result in May.

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