Labor fiddled with factions while the Land of Tofu burned

In 2007, Batman was the safest Labor seat in Australia, held by a landslide-proof 76-24 against the Liberals. On March 17, when we, the burghers of Batman, cast our vote in a byelection caused by a citizenship malfunction, it's close to an even money chance that the fortress will fall.

The Greens took the seat of Melbourne in the next election of 2010 in what any amateur demographer or North Fitzroy real estate agent could see was a launching pad for a takeover of the city's progressive and rapidly gentrified inner north, so often lampooned as the land of tofu, single-origin coffee and, in recent times, “stop Adani’’ signage.

The ALP, as some party insiders explained, had higher priorities back then – such as trying to govern the country as a parliamentary minority. Batman and its neighbouring seat of Wills don't appear to have been given any strategic thought.

Read the opinion piece in The Age by Jake Niall - “Labor fiddled with factions while the Land of Tofu burned.”