Labor’s win in Batman throws up more challenges for the party in the inner city than it solves. Over recent years, there has been a growing consensus among many senior Victorian Labor figures that Labor cannot win in the inner city against a tide of Greens support. The corollary is that Labor should not waste resources in the inner city fighting on issues that don’t resonate with our “traditional base” of blue-collar, working-class voters who are gradually being pushed to the outer suburbs.

Support for the Greens, the increasingly accepted logic goes, comes from an inelastic base of those over 35. This voter base can afford to continue living in the inner city and can therefore afford to fixate on post-materialistic concerns such as the plight of refugees and the development of coal mines thousands of kilometres away from their Victorian-terrace-lined streets. Additionally, the Greens will continue to rely on the support of those under-35s who view the party as the only socially acceptable brand in politics.

The Batman result has challenged this logic. With two impressive and high-profile women candidates battling it out over “Australia’s most progressive electorate”, Labor’s hand was forced. As the campaign took shape, Labor’s recent focus on material issues of housing and cost of living took a back seat to a focus on values. The common consensus has been you can’t out-Green the Greens. Yet by the end of the campaign, Ged Kearney was confidently tackling otherwise difficult and totemic issues for Labor and turning them into a strength.

Loading

In turn, Labor experienced unexpected swings to it in the southern parts of the electorate where, in recent years, the Greens vote has been at its strongest. It appears that the highly educated southern suburbs viewed Kearney as a legitimate representative of their progressive concerns and a viable voice in the federal Labor caucus.