By Oliver Winn
Though it was a Labor landslide across the rest of Victoria, Naomi Oakley fell short of clinching the Casey seat from Liberal incumbent Aaron Violi.
A late shift in the polls briefly put the Labor candidate ahead of Mr Violi by a slim margin, but as the count continued it became apparent Mr Violi escaped the damage dealt by Labor on a national level.
Ms Oakley said she was disappointed by the result but would continue her work with the community for the next election in 2028.
“It’s disappointing but now it’s time to reset. Labor values are still really important to me and I’ll continue to advocate with community groups and ensure that the promises that the sitting member has said will be put in place.”
Her priorities would include organising forums on community safety and family violence, helping displaced peoples, aging residents and increasing awareness surrounding police veterans mental health.
“All these things that are really important. I think people still want people to advocate for those things.”
“I’m a bit of a fighter. So I’ll just continue to sort of work with the groups.”
Ms Oakley ran for the seat of Menzies in the 2022 election and despite losing to Liberal member Keith Wolahan, she managed to close the voting margin by seven per cent.
She said she had “chipped away” at the Casey electorate for this election and hoped to capitalise on that next election.
“I know there’s some gaps that we could fill and really it’s about continuing to advocate for community groups and I’m letting them know that we’re still here,” she said.
Greens candidate for Casey Merran Blair said this year’s campaign was the strongest ever for the Greens.
“I am so proud of what our team achieved this election.”
“We brought together a great team of passionate and dedicated volunteers. Over the country, the Greens primary vote was up and this is something we are really proud of. We are a resilient bunch and we will keep working because we believe politics should be about genuinely helping people and having ambition for a better future,” Ms Blair said.
Ms Oakley said she’d also focus on recognising police veterans
