Muslim Votes Matter will relax its anti-Labor position at this month's Victorian election, putting volunteers on the ground in key outer suburban seats the incumbent government risks losing to One Nation. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The grassroots advocacy group will direct its supporters to vote for Labor ahead of Pauline Hanson's party in all lower house Victorian electorates and will aim to have volunteers on the ground in the seats of Greenvale, in Melbourne's north, and Narre Warren South, in the city's south-east, which the party fears could be seized by One Nation.
This is a departure from its position at last year's federal election, where the pro-Palestine group focused on endorsing Greens and independent candidates to punish Labor, prompted by anger over the federal government's handling of Israel's war in Gaza.
Ghaith Krayem, the national spokesperson for MVM, said "circumstances have changed" ahead of the state election on 28 November. But Krayem said the group would still not put Labor in the top spot in any seat on its how-to-vote cards, instead favouring independents and minor parties as it did at the 2025 federal election.
"As a community, we certainly don't want to increase One Nation's influence," he said. "There is a risk that if we went hard anti-Labor, like we did in the federal election, that would in fact benefit One Nation, and that's not an outcome we want."
Krayem said Muslim communities feared that if the Coalition was unable to form majority government, it could be forced to negotiate with One Nation and agree to some of its policy demands. He pointed to Hanson calling for a burqa ban in Australia as rhetoric that affected Muslim people.
"It becomes more normal for people to question the rights of how Muslims dress, to question the rights of whether the Muslim community is Australian enough," he said. "That is not a good place for the country or for the state."
Krayem said MVM would preference Labor over the Liberal party in seats where preferences from the latter could flow to One Nation. The opposition leader, Jess Wilson, has been tight lipped when asked about preferences or potential deals with One Nation, saying the Coalition is running for majority government.
Greenvale, a seat created before the 2022 election and held by Labor on a 7.1% margin on a two-party preferred basis, has a significant Middle Eastern population. "Given that it has a significant Muslim population, we think if we're on the ground in Greenvale, we can shore up a bit of that support and minimise the risk of Greenvale becoming a One Nation seat," Krayem said.
Labor holds Narre Warren South on an 8.3% two-party preferred margin and data from the 2021 census shows 13.1% of the constituency are Muslim compared to 4.2% state-wide. MVM will also have volunteers on the ground in Tarneit, where 14.6% of residents in the electorate are Muslim. Labor holds the seat on a 12.3% margin.
Krayem said the outer western electorate was selected as a target seat following conversations with Muslim communities who said they were frustrated with Labor. "Labor's views with respect to Palestine, freedom of speech, protesting, all of those things, is still very much an issue across the community," he said. "Palestine and Gaza is still the number-one issue that our community is unhappy about at all levels of government."
MVM will create how-to-vote cards for every lower and upper house seat based on how candidates align with its policy priorities, and volunteers will hand out the cards at polling booths in Greenvale, Narre Warren South and Tarneit. MVM's Victorian policy priorities include tackling Islamophobia, cost of living and housing security, and respecting the rights of residents to advocate for Palestine.