The Greens have blitzed the west in a quest to keep their sole western suburbs MP in the upper house after the November 29 election.
A “weekend of action”, beginning with Colleen Hartland’s campaign launch on October 31, included hundreds of Green volunteers and more than a dozen events aimed at keeping the Greens in the running as the two major parties ramp up their own campaigns.
The team held more than 2000 conversations with voters over two days, adding to 3000 door knocks and 4500 calls already made.
Ms Hartland said the sweep through the western suburbs was needed to protect her knife-edge margin with the Greens needing to chase every vote they could.
She said a key message was highlighting what she has in common with voters living in the west.
“I grew up in Morwell and, when I first moved to the western suburbs, I saw the same things as in Morwell; people knew their neighbours and people looked after each other,” she said.
“There was always this sense that the government didn’t really care about us like they did over the other side of the Maribyrnong. But there is still this amazing sense of community – it’s not just a slogan for me that I wouldn’t live anywhere else.”
Ms Hartland said her role as an MP from outside the two major parties was to keep pressure on the government to keep it acting for the west.
“I think I have been able to be very effective, fighting for better education, better health and better transport.”.
