Labor opens preference tickets in Prahran and Caulfield as Coalition courts One Nation

Victorian Labor will run an open ticket in the inner-city seats of Prahran and Caulfield at the state election on28November2026, a move that could deprive the Greens of preferences they need to win Prahran back from the Liberal Party.

The announcement comes as the Victorian Coalition and One Nation plan to preference each other above Labor.

The open tickets would ask voters to put Labor's Meghan Hopper first in Prahran and Mikaela Stafrace first in Caulfield, leaving later preferences undirected. Local campaigns requested this, consistent with Labor's 2025 federal approach in overlapping Macnamara. Caulfield, held by Liberal deputy leader David Southwick on a 2. 1 per cent margin, contains Victoria's largest Jewish community, extending into the Prahran electorate.

The Greens lost Prahran at the 2025 byelection after holding it since 2014. Liberal Rachel Westaway now holds it on a 1. 3 per cent margin, and the Greens are again running Angelica Di Camillo. Labor did not contest that byelection. J-United, backed by Advance Australia, campaigned to put the Greens last over Gaza; the Greens instead attributed defeat to low turnout and the absence of absentee votes, often important among younger, mobile voters. The party sees stronger polling as a reason for optimism this time.

Liberal sources said One Nation would not necessarily be second on their ticket; at May's Nepean byelection it was third, behind the Libertarian candidate. Jess Wilson said Labor, the Greens and Victorian Socialists would sit at the bottom, with all other parties higher. The Coalition was not proposing to put Labor last, an ordering that could hurt Greens campaigns in Richmond, Pascoe Vale and Preston.

Labor minister Anthony Carbines said his party would put One Nation last and accused Wilson of seeking government with that party. One Nation's James Ashby had said the party would put Labor last because it wanted the government gone. Preference recommendations do not replace voters' own decisions on their ballots.

Illustrative cropped ballot boxes from New Zealand in 2008, not Victorian election equipment or a 2026 polling place.