Two of the most hotly-contested seats in this year's Australian election are Wills in Melbourne’s north and Macnamara to the east, both representing crucial wins for Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his hopes of a majority government.
The biggest discussion point in both electorates has been the war on Gaza, polarising voters in the two seats and seeing previously life-long Labor voters reconsider their ballot for the first time as the Greens continue to throw their support behind the free Palestine movement.
In Macnamara, MP Josh Burns represents an area that holds a number of suburbs with a strong Jewish population.
Burns, who is Jewish himself, has held the seat since 2019 and has been one of the most vocal supporters of Israel within the Labor party, but still says he “desperately wants to see a peace agreement signed”.
He has now retained the seat for a third term, winning the three way race between himself, the Liberal Party's Benson Saulo and Sonya Semmens from the Greens.
Similarly in Wills the conflict in Palestine is a front and centre issue for voters.
This key electorate had its boundaries redrawn after the 2022 federal election, and this year no longer includes parts of Glenroy and Oak Park, instead seeing Princes Hill and Fitzroy North back into the fold.
One in 10 voters in the area are Muslim, and as of 2021 the second most spoken language outside of English is Arabic.
The Greens again are the main threat to Labor’s hold on Wills, as Samantha Ratnam set her sights on the seat that has been held by Labor’s Peter Khalil for more than a decade.
At the time of writing (10:00 am AEST) 69% of votes had been counted for the seat, with Khalil was ahead by a hairs breadth, with a 4% swing to the Greens.
Jac Stewart, a 33 year old student paramedic and long-term Wills resident, spoke to Azzet about why she is voting Greens this year.
“I am historically a Greens voter in general, but I’m definitely voting Greens this year because I think that they have the best alignment with my values,” Stewart said.
“A lot of the Labor and the Liberals' election messaging is ‘don't vote for the other guys’, whereas the Greens have more of a vision of something positive..it's ‘do vote for us because of these things that we will do’.”
“The Greens have consistently supported the LGBTQ community, consistently supported a free Palestine as well, which the Labor Party is incredibly disappointing on,” she said.
“Climate change is a very big issue for people my age and generation, and I vote Greens after having seen the absolute inaction on climate from both major parties, and, I think some of the really disingenuous messaging from Labor.”
We also spoke to Wills voter Tom*, a 22 year old hospitality worker who is a fan of Anthony Albanese.
While he preferenced a third party this time around, the Legalise Cannabis Party, Labor was a close second on both his ballots.
“Everyone I know in Wills is voting Greens, my whole family and all my friends,” Tom told Azzet.
“But I don’t like it when the Green side with the Liberals and block Labor policies for not being progressive enough"
“I'm also just an Albo fan in general, love the future made in Australia stuff, a focus on more investing in renewable energy and manufacturing to get rich on the way to net zero.”
