A by-election for the seat of Northcote in the

Victorian Legislative Assembly The Victorian Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Victoria in Australia; the upper house being the Victorian Legislative Council. Both houses sit at Parliament House in Spring Street, Melbourne. The presiding ...

was held on 18 November 2017. The by-election was triggered by the death of Labor Party MP

Fiona Richardson Fiona Catherine Alison Richardson (22 November 1966 – 23 August 2017) was an Australian politician. She was a Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch), Labor Party member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly from 2006 until her death in 20 ...

on 23 August 2017. While the seat historically has firmly been in the Labor Party's hands since its inception in 1927, environmental issues, rising house prices and demographic trends have resulted in a stronger Greens vote at recent elections. The

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

elected not to field a candidate. The seat was won by the Greens on a swing of more than 11.5%.

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

election expert

Antony Green Antony John Green (born 2 March 1960) is an Australian psephologist and commentator. He is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's chief election analyst. Early years and background Born in Warrington, Lancashire, in northern England, Gree ...

called the seat for the Greens at 8.30 pm on the night of the count. Greens candidate

Lidia Thorpe Lidia Alma Thorpe (born 1973) is an Australian politician representing the Australian Greens. She has been a senator for Victoria since 2020, and is the first Aboriginal senator from that state. From June to October 2022, she served as the G ...

became the first female Aboriginal MP in the Victorian Parliament as a result of the victory and the Greens increased their representation in the Legislative Assembly to three MPs.

Background

The by-election was called following the death of former Labor member for the district and Minister for Women,

. Having taken medical leave from Parliament on 7 August 2017, she died in office on 23 August. This triggered a vacancy in the seat, with writs for election being issued by the Assembly Speaker, Colin Brooks.

Candidates

A total of 12 candidates were declared nominated by the VEC. The

decided against fielding a candidate.

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9" ! colspan="6" style="text-align:left;" , After distribution of preferences The VEC stops distributing preferences when a candidate reaches over 50 per cent of the vote. An indicative two-candidate-preferred count had Lidia Thorpe (Greens) on 20,137 votes (55.6%) to Clare Burns (Labor) on 16,080 votes (44.4%)—a swing of 11.6 percentage points to the Greens.

References

{{reflist

External links

Victorian Electoral Commission: Northcote District by-electionABC Elections: 2017 Northcote by-election
2017 elections in Australia Victorian state by-elections 2010s in Victoria (Australia) November 2017 events in Australia

Background

Candidates

Results

See also

References

External links