Ready for the greening of Kooyong

I spent today delivering three rounds of the last lot of Greens leaflets for the campaign - better late than never. It has been a good campaign for Kooyong - we have had very encouraging feedback from many of you out there.

As Richard Di Natale said to me after the recent senate debate in Hawthorn - sharing information about Greens policies is easy - as they are the best and most balanced policies compared to the big spending pork barelling of the old parties, and their lack of real action on climate change.

A face in the crowd: Liberal, Labor and union supporters surround Prime Minister John Howard on his morning walk through Cairns. Photo: Andrew Taylor

I would like to thank all who have helped out during the campaign - your efforts are key contributions to the result we will get tomorrow.

I have been reluctant to speculate on our result for Kooyong. Many people still don't know that voting 1 Green and then 2 for another party means that if I don't get elected then their vote transfers at full value to the other party. With a mood for change about, this means that they will be tempted to vote 1 for another party, even though they want to support the Greens. Well, that would be wasted vote.

You get double value when you vote 1 Green, 2 old party.

I will be happy if our primary vote is maintained at around 13%, anything above that would be a bonus, and a huge wake up call to both Labor and the Liberals.

Remember, if there is a swing of 5% away from the Coalition then Kooyong will become a marginal seat. Vote 1 Green then choose your next preference very carefully.

Ken Harvey (Labor), Petro Georgiou (Liberal) and David Collyer (Democrats) have all run good campaigns too - I have enjoyed the opportunity to debate with them and chat with them. I think that the Kooyong campaign has been clean and fair with no dirty tricks, unlike some other seats such as Deakin and Lindsay where the negative campaigning has been quite unpleasant.

So let's see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully by tomorrow night we will know if we have Richard Di Natale as the first Greens senator for Victoria (although it may take longer for the senate result to be known), and whether we have a government that is committed to taking action on climate change.

I am tipping a Labor win by only 2 seats. Howard is an outside chance to retain government, but only by 1 seat.

This could well be the most important election of our lifetimes. Vote carefully. A Green MP for Kooyong would provide three years of dynamic action in Canberra and be be front page news.