Labor has retained the federal Melbourne seat of Batman, overcoming the Greens' march on inner-city seats.

Polls showed a three per cent swing to Labor's Ged Kearney following Saturday's by-election after she took out more than 54 per cent of the two-party preferred result.

"They said we'd never do it but we did," the soon-to-be MP told pumped-up supporters on Saturday night.

"We spoke to national progressive values, workers' rights, climate change, social justice and a better Australia."

Federal leader Bill Shorten said the win meant Labor was "back", having proved bookmakers and commentators wrong for writing them off in Batman.

Six-time Greens candidate Alex Bhathal did not say if she'd run again for the seat after conceding defeat.

"Obviously, it's not the result that any of us would have wanted," she told the party faithful.

"We knew that Labor would throw everything they had at this seat to hold it after 84 years.

"Many people have said over the course of the campaign that regardless of the outcome, we'll have a strong, progressive woman representing us in this seat."

With the Liberals not fielding a candidate in Batman, the by-election was a test of whether the Greens' march into inner-metropolitan seats would continue, or if Labor could successfully appeal to a younger demographic.

The minor party blamed their loss on preferences to "hard-right" parties such as the Australian Conservatives.

Ten candidates contested the by-election, sparked by the resignation of Labor's David Feeney earlier this year over his dual citizenship.</s>In the wash-up of the Batman byelection, Richard Di Natale is looking inwards.

Not just at what went wrong in a campaign that appeared to be the Greens’ to lose but what went wrong in the party, which allowed internal fractures and divides to dominate the party’s chance to add a federal MP to its lineup.

“This was always going to be close,” he said before his only scheduled media event, a late-night appearance on the ABC, on Sunday. “We made incredible inroads in Labor’s heartland with a positive campaign on Adani, refugees and inequality, but it is absolutely clear that we have to get our own house in order if we’re going to win back traditional Greens voters who were turned off by the leaking and sabotage from a few individuals with a destructive agenda.”

The wheels fell off the Greens’ campaign in the final weeks before the 17 March poll, with infighting, increasing factional divides and disagreements over policy directions overshadowing Alex Bhathal’s attempts to finally wrestle the seat from Labor.

Labor’s decision to run nurse and former ACTU president Ged Kearney in the seat, where Labor had seen dips in support under former MP David Feeney, was seen as an endorsement of Bill Shorten’s policies.

Speaking at Kearney’s victory party on Saturday night, the Labor leader said the party would take the “lessons and message” from the Batman byelection to Canberra, and signalled Labor would continue campaigning on the issue of inequality before the next federal election.

On Sunday, he doubled down on that message.

“It is not about us,” he said of the win. “Political parties do best when we focus on the needs of everyday people. We have a very different agenda to that of ... my opponent, Mr Turnbull. We want to see that tax breaks are working to relieve middle-class Australians.

“It is a lesson for all political parties. When you focus on the people rather than yourselves, that is what people want to see. They don’t expect us to win every argument, they don’t expect us to accomplish everything. They do expect us to spend every day trying to serve the people.”

Meanwhile, Malcolm Turnbull, who heralded the Coalition’s retention of both New England and Bennelong as an endorsement of his government, claimed Labor could take no such comfort from holding on to Batman.

“We weren’t involved in that election,” he said. “I guess it tells you a lot about Bill Shorten’s situation that he’s crowing about holding a seat that the Labor party have had for 50 years.”

The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, told the ABC: “I think the infighting amongst the Greens enabled Labor to get over the line. Otherwise it would have been a much worse result, without doubt.

“This was Labor heartland, this was one of their safest seats, 75% two-party preferred. Now it is a truly marginal seat for Labor, so I wouldn’t be taking great credit if I were Bill Shorten with this outcome.”

In the final week of the campaign, government MPs had claimed the byelection would be a comment on Labor’s $59bn dividend imputation plan, with the assistant treasurer, Michael Sukkar, tweeting on the day of the election that a loss would mean the policy would have to be dumped.

The treasurer, Scott Morrison, told Sky News on Sunday morning that the Melbourne electorate, which is considered the nation’s most progressive, was not indicative of mainstream Australia, and Shorten’s policy still had tests to pass.

“He is pillaging your pocket to pursue his political interests,” he said. “That is not a good sign for the Australian people under a Shorten government, if they are ever allowed to [win] power.”</s>Much is at stake in tomorrow’s Batman by-election, for both Labor and the Greens. Ben Eltham reports from his home electorate.

The inner-Melbourne seat of Batman is unusual in many respects. Stretching approximately 10 kilometres in a concrete ribbon north from Clifton Hill to the middle ring suburbs of Preston, Reservoir and Bundoora, it encompasses much of Melbourne’s diversity and dynamism.

On one analysis, Batman is the most left-leaning seat in the country. According to the ABC’s Vote Compass, the seat scores the most leftwards on political philosophy of all 150 federal electorates. The demographics are a rainbow coalition of white and blue collar workforce, second generation Greek and Italian immigrants, with a large swathe of Melbourne hipsterdom and LGBTIQ voters predominant.

The seat’s retail artery, High Street, is an epicentre of Melbourne gentrification. Served by the famous (or should that be infamous) 86 tram, old shops are being knocked down and high-rise apartment blocks are sprouting. Just a decade ago, Thornbury was a sleepy middle-ring suburb known mainly for Italian grandparents. Now it’s one of Melbourne’s hottest restaurant and bar districts, with wood-fire pizza and small bars on seemingly every block. Men with beards and women with tattoos are everywhere.

In the centre of Batman lies the suburb of Preston, where I live. Made famous by Courtney Barnett in her song ‘Depreston’, Preston is a fast-changing mix of bucolic bungalows in cul-de-sacs, old factories and warehouses, and new apartments, cafes and bike repair shops. ‘Depreston’ depicts a young couple considering purchasing a house “out further” from their usual digs in the inner city.A poignant four minute elegy to suburban anomie, the song describes Barnett’s travails house-hunting, a rite of passage all too familiar to Batman voters. “We don’t have to be around all these coffee shops,” Barnett tells her partner in the song.

‘Depreston’ is only a few years old, but it’s a handy gauge for just how rapid the demographic change in the seat is. You won’t find a house worth $500,000 in the postcode anymore. House prices have shot skywards in a process that has hurt many at the pointy end of Australia’s unprecedented experiment in housing inequality. While the boom has minted millionaires for those selling houses on big blocks, the pain for workers of moderate means is real. As fast as the hipsters move in, the working classes move out, driven north and west by spiralling rents.

The demographic transition has happened faster than anyone ever expected, which is what makes the Batman by-election so interesting, both for local residents and especially for Australian politics. Batman is a litmus test. The stakes are high.

For the Australian Labor Party, nothing less than the future of the ALP in the inner cities is at stake. In Ged Kearney, the party has fielded the best that the labour movement has to offer. Kearney has impeccable credentials as a representative of workers. A former nurse and union delegate, she rose to the top of the ACTU, all the while demonstrating a winning mix of warmth and determination. Kearney has been a strong advocate for the environment and for the plight of refugees. She is a woman of substance in a winnable seat.

I sat down with Kearney at a café inside the cavernous Northlands shopping centre. She’d just come from a doorstop at a local school.

“I had been interested in Batman before, it didn’t work out,” she told me. “And I’m glad because I had unfinished business in the ACTU and I did great work while I was there. It’s my home. It’s a good fit for me, it’s a good fit for where I am personally, I know and I love the area.”

“There’s a feeling that Labor hasn’t been as progressive as it should have been, and I think there’s a couple of really big issues on which people are disappointed. But it’s interesting – when you sit down and get a chance to talk to people and explain Labor policies, people are surprised.

“I’m kind of new to selling Labor policies,” she laughed.

“I’ve had some great conversations. One chap stopped me today and asked me did I realise about the number of public servants in the area, and the issue for federal public servants is a wages freeze. I was able to have a really good chat to him.”

When I asked her about the issues voters mention, Kearney replied: “Schools, schools, schools.”

“This is all about schools. The schools could do with a lick of paint, they could do with some capital infrastructure. They’ve got 100-year-old windows, they’ve got tiles falling off the roof, this is really why I hope I get elected, I would focus on that.”

Kearney is undeniably ambitious. “I reckon I could make a difference,” she said at one point, with a steely smile. “I would hope that I don’t stay a backbencher for long, I would like to work my while through to a higher level of presentation so I could really make change. I know how to win battles, I’ve got experience on the ground in winning change in campaigns, I know the hard work that needs to go into policy.”

Kearney’s run is all the more important because it will answer the question of whether the problem for Labor in inner city seats has been personal, or philosophical. In inner Sydney, where the ALP is represented by Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek, the party can point to two substantial figures of the left, who have been progressive in their politics and diligent in their fight against the forces of the right.

Melbourne has been rather the opposite: Kearney is running in Batman because the representation of the hapless David Feeney, a widely disliked factional warrior of the ALP right, was ruled invalid by the High Court.

In contrast, Greens candidate Alex Bhathal’s story is one of traditional grass-roots politics. She first stood for the seat in 2001, where she picked up a small swing in the Tampa election that swept John Howard to a third term. Far from a factional warrior or a professional operative, Bhathal is a suburban social worker and a social democrat: the sort of candidate Labor used to throw up in its younger days.

When I sat down in a Thornbury park to talk to her in the last week of the campaign, Bhathal told me that “jobs and housing” were amongst the key issues in the electorate. “Renters are being pushed out of the whole electorate now, maybe with the exception of Kingsbury and Bundoora, but even then people get evicted with very little notice, rents are rising, there’s also the problem of housing affordability for people looking to buy in the electorate.

“The other broad issues – which seems to surprise Labor, but they don’t surprise me – are that people are outraged about what’s happening to refugees, and they want some action on the climate emergency,” Bhathal said.

“The other thing that people talk to me a lot about, and it’s more likely to be raised to me by older migrants, is that they’re outraged by the inequality that is forcing people to live on the streets. I’ve had people crying in frustration and despair.”

What’s it like running against an opponent of the stature of Ged Kearney, I asked. “She is someone who I’ve long valued for her stance on refugee and asylum seeker rights,” Bhathal responded. “I was shocked to read her statement that the detention of refugees is a ‘reality we need to accept’. I can’t understand why she would say such a thing… if she’s talking about political reality, that’s precisely why progressive leaders need to lead the way and take a bold stand.”

Bhathal echoed the Greens talking point that the ALP is a graveyard for progressives looking to change the party from the inside. “I’ve seen a lot of impressive people come into Labor, from Greg Combet, a former ACTU head as well, to Peter Garrett. They say they’re going to change things internally, and Labor changes them.”

In contrast to 2016, when she had a dream run against the accident-prone Feeney, 2018 hasn’t been an easy campaign for Bhathal. Even though she has contested the seat five times since 2001, Bhathal faced a nasty pre-selection battle in 2016 which saw a small minority of her branch split off in opposition.

While Bhathal won the pre-selection contest comfortably, the victory embittered her internal opponents. Bhathal has suffered a damaging series of leaks from inside the party aimed at painting her as a bully.

Are you a bully, I asked her.

“No. I’m not that kind of person. The party has dealt with that matter and from my perspective it was a comprehensive evaluation and investigation, and I was re-endorsed as the candidate for the seat and I’m running now. Anyone can look on the ground can see we’ve got huge numbers of our local members of the Greens, and our supporters are out there campaigning in the seat.”

While anonymous and unsubstantiated, the leaks have been seized upon by the media. The Greens believe they are held to higher standards than the major parties, so internal warfare is all the more destabilising with switched-on local voters.

Bhathal conceded it has been damaging.

“It has been really, really difficult for me, but I’ve been overwhelmed by support. It hasn’t been difficult because people believe it, it has been difficult just because I believe it has been terribly unfair.”

“It worries me that this could happen in any political party, and that the media hasn’t asked the questions that could be asked about it, but I’ve been trying to focus on the issues.”

Media hostility was on full display on the Thursday before the by-election, when Fairfax’s Noel Towell published a scathing attack piece on the Greens, featuring a claim he had been sworn at by an unattributed “Greens staffer”. Towell dressed up his allegation by claiming the Greens were under pressure, and of course they are, but the effort looked more like a calculated smear than a new revelation. Privately, staffers in Greens headquarters acknowledge that the incident has hurt them, even while contesting Towell’s version of the conversation.

And yet, the race remains close, in part because The Age is far from the powerful force it used to be. Local campaigning and social media may prove more important.

And then there’s policy. Despite the heat of the campaign, in policy terms, the by-election has been rather unadventurous. Both the Greens and Labor have rolled out just a single new policy, with the Greens pledging to reform the Fair Work Act and Labor announcing its new policy on dividend imputation. Both candidates have also had to deal with the swings and roundabouts of their leaders’ positions on key issues.

For Kearney, the challenge has been to navigate Labor’s confusion on mining policy, as Bill Shorten has swung like a weather vane on Adani’s Carmichael mine in north Queensland. As I wrote last week, the ALP is all over the shop on Adani, and Kearney has had to defend a position that appears to be simultaneously pro- and anti-Carmichael.

“Personally, I think I’ve been very clear [that]I don’t think it should go ahead, it doesn’t stand up financially, the jobs story is not real, it will take jobs away from other industries,” Kearney told me in our interview. “But I’m acutely aware that there are people in north Queensland who need jobs, they’re a long, long way away from us, and I’m not prepared to say we’re going to throw you under a bus. And I don’t think Bill Shorten is.”

Kearney has also had to spend time explaining her position on asylum seeker policy. As a noted campaigner for asylum seekers, many have pointed out the inconsistency of her previous statements, given she will now be bound by Labor’s platform.

This animus blew up last weekend, when someone snapped a photo of Bhathal at a refugee rally, in front of a Labor corflute poster which had been defaced with a red “no” sign emblazoned across Kearney’s face. “I saw that corflute and I was dismayed, and I actually asked the people not to use it,” Bhathal told me. “I think it’s appalling, I would never ever do anything to support the defacement of election materials.”

On refugees, Kearney walks a tightrope. “I don’t think anybody wants to see people languishing on Manus or Nauru,” she said in our interview. “I think what people need to remember is that Labor asylum seeker policy is pretty progressive, there will be funding for resettlement, it starts from a humane approach and not demonising or prosecuting people.”

But Kearney won’t cross the floor or speak out on ALP asylum seeker policy. “I will continue to speak for my position, which is well known, at party conference.” It’s about all she can honestly promise, but it will hardly mollify those who wish for a more humane immigration policy.

Bhathal has also faced challenges on policy, being forced to defend the Greens position on pensions (the party voted with the government to tighten asset testing in the last parliament). The difficulties multiplied late in the race, after Labor announced its policy to remove the cash rebate for fully franked dividends, a policy the Greens declared they would seek to modify in order to protect low-income pensioners. There has been some suggestion that Labor’s announcement will hurt it with older voters who have been frightened by the Coaliton’s scare campaign.

Whether any of this matters on the day is anyone’s guess. There has been little published polling on the by-election, and neither campaign is revealing any details of their internal surveys. As one would expect given her experience, Kearney has performed well in public debates and in media appearances. But Bhathal is better known in the electorate. Labor has run a slick and well-organised campaign. The Greens have enlisted more door-knocking foot soldiers and mounted a stronger ground game.

Bhathal’s other problem has been dealing with the virulence of Labor attacks, particularly from rusted-on ALP supporters who resent the Greens’ inroads into a Labor stronghold. These are to be expected in what amounts to an internecine battle: it remains difficult for Labor stalwarts to accept that the ALP is no longer the uncontested party of the left; this drives a view of Greens voters as traitors to the working class cause.

But Batman is interesting precisely because it potentially illuminates a rising demographic of new voters. The conventional view of Greens voters is that they are disaffected Labor deserters. If so, the theory goes, a sufficiently left-wing candidate and platform might win them back.

But how true is this? There are many younger Greens voters who have never voted for the ALP. An 18-year old who voted for Bob Brown in her first election in 2010 is now 29. Labor has not spent a great deal of effort to try and appeal to such voters; in some election years, like 2013, it has actively alienated them. If there really is a growing cohort of deep Greens, then Batman is the place to see them. Saturday’s election will provide us with some granular evidence.

The other big unknown is what conservative voters will do. The Liberals polled 20 per cent in Batman in 2016, but are not running a candidate this time round. It’s a move most expect to help the Greens. The theory goes that wealthier voters, the so-called ‘Teal Greens’, will plump for the minor party over the hated party of unions. That is one narrative explaining the victory for Lidia Thorpe in the Northcote state election earlier this year. But equally, many Liberal voters could cop the fine for not voting, and simply stay home. A handful of right-wing candidates from the Australian Conservatives, Australian Liberty Alliance and Rise Up may also harvest preferences in unpredictable ways.

When I asked her about this, Bhathal had short shrift for the view that her electorate is chock full of teal Greens who are wealthy enough to afford to be concerned about refugees and the environment. “I’ve always been completely nonplussed about that view. I’ve never believed in the ‘hipster proof fence’ at Bell Street… or maybe it’s moving to the Ring Road!” she laughed.

All in all, it’s a toss up. On Friday afternoon, as this article was published, the by-election was too close to call. Much will be decided in the booths of Batman on Saturday. The result will tell us much about the future shape of Australian progressive politics.

For years, Labor treated inner-city seats like Batman as trophies of factional combat. Feeney replaced another figure of the Labor right, Martin Ferguson, whose pro-carbon politics were radically out of step with many in Melbourne’s green-tinged inner north. Just to rub it in, Ferguson has spent his post-politics retirement working for the fossil fuels lobby.

With little local appeal, Feeney was parachuted in to Batman after losing his winnable spot on the Victorian Senate ticket. It was a symptom of the way the party took left-leaning voters for granted. In contrast, Kearney is the candidate Labor should have pre-selected after Ferguson: a strong, likeable progressive with local roots.

If Kearney can’t win Batman, therefore, the ALP will be forced to confront some unpalatable truths: that its problem in the inner cities is not just weak candidates, but a demographic shift to the left. In the worst case scenario, it would condemn Labor to concede the fast-growing inner cities to the Greens, and move the focus of its campaigning to the mortgage belts of the suburbs and regions, where it can compete on more traditional issues of the centre.

As Kearney told me towards the end of our interview, “I really don’t know what I’m going to do if I don’t win… I will have to go and look for a job.”

But just as much it at stake for the Greens. With Alex Bhathal in Batman, the party has its best shot of a second House of Representatives seat. Bhathal is a local with deep local recognition: it is almost impossible to walk down the street with her without being hailed by a resident or friend. She is well-respected in the local community. And she has momentum: taking the Greens vote from single figure percentages to a majority of primary votes.

If Bhathal can’t win Batman, therefore, many will ask whether the Greens’ ambitions to become a third major party are fantasy. To make a difference in the lower house, the Greens must win and hold winnable electorates, building on their base to construct a meaningful House of Representatives caucus. Bhathal is a popular candidate with impeccable left-wing credentials and a high local profile. If she can’t win in Australia’s most left-leaning seat, the future of the Greens in the lower house looks limited.</s>Labor wins the Batman by-election, upsetting the Greens who were the favourites to win the inner-Melbourne seat and have now blamed preferences deals between Labor and "hard-right" parties for their defeat.

Labor has declared victory in the Batman by-election, upsetting the Greens who were the favourites to win the inner-Melbourne seat.

Former ACTU president Ged Kearney was on track to defeat the Greens' Alex Bhathal, with the ALP winning back voters from the Greens in the southern part of the electorate.

There has been no formal declaration, but with more than half of the vote counted at 9pm AEDT, the ABC was predicting that Labor would retain the seat.

"This is a victory for true Labor values,'' Ms Kearney said.

"Our campaign spoke to everyone from the ring road to the river."

Her victory, the first ever for a woman in Batman, takes female representation in the federal caucus to 48 per cent.

Ms Kearney entered the Thornbury Theatre, where Labor supporters are celebrating, to a crowd-led rendition of union anthem Solidarity, and Mr Shorten paid tribute to the efforts of unions in the campaign.

He also acknowledged there was a growing anti-political party sentiment in the community, but used the victory to make a broader pitch to Australian voters.

Mr Shorten paid tribute to the Greens for running, and took a swipe at Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for "not even bothering to turn up".

He also thanked the campaign's volunteers.

"To all of those who voted for Labor or not, tonight we celebrate a victory for Labor."

"I promise that we do not treat this election outcome as a triumph and an end in itself, but as another step, another step along the way to giving Australians the sort of government they want."

Greens leader Richard Di Natale told the party faithful the Greens were not going to get over the line in Batman.

He blamed preference deals between Labor and hard-right parties.

"Obviously it's not the result that any of us would have wanted," Ms Bhathal said.

"I first want to congratulate Ged Kearney. It's been an honour to have contested this seat against her."

"Many people have said over the course of this campaign that regardless of the outcome we'll have a strong, progressive woman representing us in this seat. And I wish Ged all the very best in Canberra."

It was Ms Bhathal's sixth attempt to win the seat and she entered the by-election needing just a 1 per cent swing to knock Labor off.

But the Greens campaign was dogged by internal leaks, including the release of a 101-page dossier of complaints from branch members against Ms Bhathal, some calling for expulsion over bullying and branch-stacking allegations.

Equally, Labor has had to fight a campaign on national issues that have wedged it, including stopping the Adani mine and the treatment of refugees.</s>With 66% of enrolled voters counted in Saturday’s South Australian election, the ABC is calling 24 of the 47 lower house seats for the Liberals, 18 for Labor and three independents. Two seats – Adelaide and Mawson – are in doubt. Pre-poll, postal and absent votes will not start to be counted until Tuesday.

While the Liberals won the election, the biggest losers were Nick Xenophon and his SA-BEST party. SA-BEST does not appear to have won a single lower house seat, while the Liberals crushed Xenophon in Hartley 58.6-41.4. When preferences are distributed, Labor could eliminate Xenophon from the final two candidates on Greens’ preferences.

Statewide primary votes were 37.4% Liberals (down 7.4% since the 2014 election), 33.9% Labor (down 1.9%), 13.7% SA-BEST, 6.6% Greens (down 2.1%) and 3.1% Australian Conservatives (down 3.0% from Family First’s 2014 vote). When counting is complete, I would expect Labor to fall somewhat, with the Liberals and Greens gaining.

Family First merged into the Conservatives last year, but this was not successful in South Australia. In my opinion, Family First had a catchier name than the Australian Conservatives.

In an October-to-December Newspoll, SA-BEST had 32% of the South Australian primary vote, and it was plausible that Xenophon could be the next premier. In the lead-up to the election, Xenophon was attacked by all sides. I believe the biggest reason for Xenophon’s flop was that he lacked a clear agenda to distinguish his party from the major parties.

Read more: Nick Xenophon could be South Australia's next premier, while Turnbull loses his 25th successive Newspoll

Labor had governed South Australia for 16 years, and the “it’s time” factor appears to have contributed to the result. But this election was not the disaster Labor suffered after 14 to 16 years in power in Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmania at elections between 2011 and 2014.

According to the Poll Bludger, Labor achieved about a two-point swing in its favour in two-party terms from the 2014 election, but it needed a three-point swing to win after a hostile redistribution. In 2014, Labor clung to power, despite losing the two-party vote 53.0-47.0.

In the upper house, half of the 22 members were up for election using statewide proportional representation. With 11 to be elected, a quota is one-twelfth of the vote, or 8.3%. Currently, the Liberals have 3.78 quotas, Labor 3.56, SA-BEST 2.27, the Greens 0.72 and the Conservatives 0.42.

Read more: Xenophon's SA-BEST slumps in a South Australian Newspoll, while Turnbull's better PM lead narrows

Optional above-the-line preferential voting was used at this election. The Liberals will win four seats, Labor three, SA-BEST two and the Greens one. Labor is currently well ahead of the Conservatives in the race for the last seat, but Labor’s vote will probably drop after election day. However, preferences from Dignity, Animal Justice and SA-BEST should help Labor against the Conservatives, with only Liberal Democrats’ preferences likely to flow the other way.

If Labor wins a fourth upper house seat, SA-BEST’s two seats would come at the expense of Dignity and the Conservatives. The overall upper house would then be eight Liberals, eight Labor, two Greens, two SA-BEST, one Advance SA (formerly SA-BEST) and one Conservative. The Liberals would need all of SA-BEST, Advance SA and Conservative to pass legislation opposed by Labor and the Greens.

The final polls for the South Australian election, from Newspoll and ReachTEL, gave the Liberals 34%, Labor 31% and SA-BEST 16-17%. The major parties, particularly the Liberals, performed better than expected, while SA-BEST performed worse.

Labor defeats the Greens 54.1-45.9 at the Batman byelection

With 74.5% of enrolled voters counted at Saturday’s Batman byelection, Labor’s Ged Kearney defeated the Greens’ Alex Bhathal by a 54.1-45.9 margin, a 3.1% swing to Labor since the 2016 election. Primary votes were 42.7% Kearney (up 7.4%), 40.3% Bhathal (up 4.1%), 6.4% Conservatives and 2.9% Animal Justice. The Liberals won 19.9% at the 2016 election, but did not contest the byelection.

In the Northcote West booth, Labor and the Greens’ two-party results are the wrong way round. The correction of this error will push Labor’s overall margin down to 53.8-46.2, but postals counted so far have strongly favoured Labor.

At byelections, there are no Greens-favouring absent votes, so Labor’s lead is likely to increase as more postals are counted.

Labor received large swings in its favour in the southern part of Batman, the more Greens-favouring part. Kearney was a far better fit for this part of the electorate than the right-aligned David Feeney. It is also possible there was a backlash against the Greens for courting Liberal votes over opposition to Labor’s plan to alter the tax treatment of franking credits.

Read more: With Feeney gone, Greens sniff a chance in Batman, and has Xenophon's bubble burst in South Australia?

For Bill Shorten and federal Labor, the Batman result will be a huge relief. If Labor had lost Batman, the media would have seen it as a backlash against Labor’s tax plan.

While Labor lost the South Australian election, it was not a disaster. Federal parties generally do better in states where the opposite party is in power, so Labor could do very well in South Australia at the next federal election.</s>A mystery caller has been wrongly telling elderly Melbourne residents they don't have to vote in the Batman by-election, the Labor Party says.

It has prompted Labor to send out 10,000 robocalls and 2400 text messages to older voters, reminding them they must have their say.

"Lying to elderly people is as low as it gets," a Labor spokesperson said on Saturday.

"We're encouraging all Batman residents to ignore these dirty tricks and exercise their right to vote."

Labor said several elderly voters received a call from someone who said people over the age of 70 didn't have to vote in Saturday's by-election.

The party contacted the Australian Electoral Commission, which promptly sent a Tweet saying voting was compulsory for everyone enrolled in Batman.

Labor's Ged Kearney and Greens candidate Alex Bhathal are going head-to-head in a tight contest for the inner-Melbourne seat.

The by-election stands as a test of whether the Greens' march into inner-metropolitan seats continues, or Labor can appeal to a younger "hipster" demographic.

It comes after Labor MP David Feeney resigned over his dual citizenship status.</s>Alex Bhathal has lost an "unlosable" by-election for the Greens in Batman after a campaign dogged by bitter infighting.

It is Bhathal's sixth failed attempt at snatching the long-held Labor seat, raising serious questions about whether it will be her last.

Without a Liberal Party candidate in the race, the inner-metropolitan Melbourne seat was seen as the Greens' to lose.

The minor party had won the primary vote in the 2016 federal election but Liberal preferences helped Labor scrape over the line.

However, the Greens' pole position was undermined by ugly internal party conflicts.

Disgruntled members leaked damaging documents about Bhathal alleging bullying, intimidation and the misuse of party information.

Bhathal, a social worker, denied the accusations and tried to play down the impact of the infighting on her campaign.

Greens MPs also leapt to their candidate's defence and questioned the motivation of those who leaked against her.

A Bhathal victory would have given the Greens two seats in the House of Representatives for the first time.

Instead, the minor party must do some soul searching after a hugely disappointing result.

The loss compounds poor performances in the Tasmanian and South Australian state elections for the Greens.

The Batman result will likely put some pressure on Richard Di Natale's leadership of the party.

The Greens based their campaign on fighting the Adani coal mine in Queensland and being fairer to refugees.

There are suggestions the Greens focused too heavily on federal issues and spoke too much to their base rather than winning over swinging voters.

The contest was seen as a test of whether the Greens' march into inner-city seats would continue apace, or Labor showing signs of appealing to a younger demographic.</s>Alex Bhathal has lost an "unlosable" by-election for the Greens in Batman after a campaign dogged by bitter infighting.

It is Bhathal's sixth failed attempt at snatching the long-held Labor seat, raising serious questions about whether it will be her last.

Without a Liberal Party candidate in the race, the inner-metropolitan Melbourne seat was seen as the Greens' to lose.

The minor party had won the primary vote in the 2016 federal election but Liberal preferences helped Labor scrape over the line.

However, the Greens' pole position was undermined by ugly internal party conflicts.

Disgruntled members leaked damaging documents about Bhathal alleging bullying, intimidation and the misuse of party information.

Bhathal, a social worker, denied the accusations and tried to play down the impact of the infighting on her campaign.

Greens MPs also leapt to their candidate's defence and questioned the motivation of those who leaked against her.

A Bhathal victory would have given the Greens two seats in the House of Representatives for the first time.

Instead, the minor party must do some soul searching after a hugely disappointing result.

The loss compounds poor performances in the Tasmanian and South Australian state elections for the Greens.

The Batman result will likely put some pressure on Richard Di Natale's leadership of the party.

The Greens based their campaign on fighting the Adani coal mine in Queensland and being fairer to refugees.

There are suggestions the Greens focused too heavily on federal issues and spoke too much to their base rather than winning over swinging voters.

The contest was seen as a test of whether the Greens' march into inner-city seats would continue apace, or Labor showing signs of appealing to a younger demographic.</s>Former Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president Ged Kearney has helped Labor snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the federal seat of Batman.

Kearney will now join a long list of former ACTU officials to enter parliament as a Labor MP.

But unlike most who have marched the well-trodden career path before her, Kearney has managed to do so in a marginal seat.

Kearney ran an effective campaign anchored on education and health to ensure Labor clung onto the inner-metropolitan Melbourne seat it has held for 80 years.

Without a Liberal Party candidate, the Greens were clear favourites in a by-election triggered by the resignation of Labor MP David Feeney.

Kearney appealed to left-leaning voters with her strong personal opinions on asylum seekers and the proposed Adani coal mine.

She also won over conservative voters and low income retirees by insisting Labor has time to review the impact of its proposal to cut cash dividend imputation credits.

In defying the odds to win Batman, Kearney has helped secure Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's grip on the party's leadership.

Shorten and other senior Labor MPs sought to manage expectations throughout the campaign, describing it as an incredibly tough contest and uphill battle.

Kearney, who does not live in Batman, started her working life as a nurse before rising through the ranks of the union movement.

Kearney is the youngest of nine children and has four kids of her own.</s>Labor has retained the federal Melbourne seat of Batman, overcoming the Greens' march on inner-city seats.

Polls showed a three per cent swing to Labor's Ged Kearney following Saturday's by-election after she took out more than 54 per cent of the two-party preferred result.

"They said we'd never do it but we did," the soon-to-be MP told pumped-up supporters on Saturday night.

"We spoke to national progressive values, workers' rights, climate change, social justice and a better Australia."

Federal leader Bill Shorten said the win meant Labor was "back", having proved bookmakers and commentators wrong for writing them off in Batman.

Six-time Greens candidate Alex Bhathal did not say if she'd run again for the seat after conceding defeat.

"Obviously, it's not the result that any of us would have wanted," she told the party faithful.

"We knew that Labor would throw everything they had at this seat to hold it after 84 years.

"Many people have said over the course of the campaign that regardless of the outcome, we'll have a strong, progressive woman representing us in this seat."

With the Liberals not fielding a candidate in Batman, the by-election was a test of whether the Greens' march into inner-metropolitan seats would continue, or if Labor could successfully appeal to a younger demographic.

The minor party blamed their loss on preferences to "hard-right" parties such as the Australian Conservatives.

Ten candidates contested the by-election, sparked by the resignation of Labor's David Feeney earlier this year over his dual citizenship.
Ged Kearney retains the Batman Division for the Australian Labor Party, despite earlier predictions that the Australian Greens would win.