The Victorian Greens will run open how-to-vote tickets in 15 lower house seats, including Werribee, Tarneit and Point Cook, escalating a dispute with Labor over preferences ahead of the 28 November state election.
The Greens will ask supporters to put their candidate first and One Nation last, leaving voters to decide how to rank everyone in between. The move departs from the party’s usual practice of recommending Labor ahead of the Coalition.
Ten of the affected seats are held by Labor. The open tickets would apply in Albert Park, Ashwood, Bellarine, Bendigo East, Bendigo West, Essendon, Euroa, Gippsland East, Mildura, Mornington, Point Cook, Polwarth, South Barwon, Tarneit and Werribee.
Werribee illustrates why the decision has drawn attention. Labor’s John Lister held the seat at the 2025 by-election by 693 votes after preferences, securing 50.82 per cent against the Liberals. The Greens received 7.57 per cent of first preferences at that by-election.
The party’s registered card for this election asks voters to back Greens candidate Tushar Kumar first, choose their own order for the remaining candidates and place One Nation last.
A Labor campaign spokesperson called the decision “unforgivable” and accused Greens leader Ellen Sandell’s party of increasing the chances of the Liberals forming government with One Nation’s support.
The Greens said they would recommend putting One Nation last in every electorate and accused Labor of helping the Liberals by running open tickets of its own in key inner Melbourne seats.
Labor’s registered how-to-vote card for Prahran and Caulfield confirms that it recommends a first preference for its own candidates and leaves the rest of the lower house ranking to voters.
In Prahran, Greens candidate Angelica Di Camillo is seeking to reclaim the seat from Liberal MP Rachel Westaway, who won the February 2025 by-election with 51.35 per cent after preferences. Westaway’s registered card ranks One Nation fifth, Labor seventh and the Greens 12th.
The dispute follows Opposition Leader Jess Wilson’s confirmation that the Coalition would generally recommend putting One Nation ahead of Labor, the Greens and Victorian Socialists. Wilson said the party would assess individual candidates before finalising its recommendations.
How-to-vote cards are advisory. For the lower house, voters must number every box in their own order. In a seat such as Werribee, if the Greens candidate is excluded while Labor and the Liberals remain in the count, each ballot goes to the highest-ranked candidate still in contention. The effect of the open ticket will depend on how voters fill in their ballots.
Early voting opens on Wednesday, 18 November. Election day is Saturday, 28 November.
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