The Victorian Greens are confident they can hold on to the inner-Melbourne seat of Prahran despite new allegations against their former MP, Sam Hibbins, as Labor opts to sit out the byelection.
Guardian Australia understands Labor’s administrative committee will meet on Tuesday evening, where it is expected they will decide not to field a candidate in the byelection, which was triggered by Hibbins’ resignation at the weekend.
A senior Labor source argued the party have not won the seat since 2006, and to surpass either the Greens or Liberals in first-preference votes would require a costly campaign of up to $500,000, which it cannot justify in the lead up to the 2026 state election.
They said the funds would be better spent on four or five target seats at that poll.
Another Labor source said the byelection would be a distraction for the government and a “big risk” if the party performed poorly, as it would contribute to the narrative they are losing ground.
It is not the first time Labor has sat out a poll – it missed the Warrandyte byelection in 2023 and the Narracan supplementary election in 2022, both of which are Liberal-held seats.
But it is likely to displease the local rank and file, who had argued the party would have performed well in the area given its recent string of housing announcements.
A Labor source also described the decision as “weak” as it looked like the party was “running scared”.
The electorate, which covers Prahran, South Yarra and Windsor, has previously been held by both major parties before Hibbins won it in 2014 in a three-way contest that took the Victorian Electoral Commission more than a week to declare.
Since then, Hibbins had increased his margin to 12% against the Liberals, but the Greens have recently performed worse than expected at local government elections and in last month’s Queensland state poll.
Hibbins’ controversial departure will also likely hurt the minor party. It came just three weeks after he quit the Greens due to a “consensual relationship” with a staff member on his team, which was a breach of the party’s rules.
On Monday, new allegations emerged, with the ABC reporting claims by a woman that Hibbins attempted to kiss her while she was interning in his office as a university student in 2016. In a statement provided to Guardian Australia, Hibbins said he “absolutely dispute[s] the sequence and detail of the events” alleged.
The ABC report alleged university interns were barred from working in the member for Prahran’s office as early as 2016 when a complaint about inappropriate behaviour was made to the department of parliamentary services (DPS).
Both La Trobe University and DPS have confirmed to Guardian Australia they had received a complaint from a student, who was interning with Hibbins as part of her studies.
The former student alleged to the ABC that Hibbins had tried to kiss her after a community event.
In a statement provided to the Guardian and the ABC, Hibbins said when the matter was brought to his attention in 2018 he “took it very seriously” and “acknowledged the person’s concern”.
“I believed the issue was a misinterpretation, so I immediately offered to provide an apology to the person involved in the parliamentary internship program. As a further act of remedy, I said I would not participate further in that particular program,” he said.
The Victorian Greens leader, Ellen Sandell, on Tuesday said the party was made aware by Hibbins in 2018 that he had voluntarily removed himself from the intern program due to a complaint.
“Clearly he has misrepresented the facts. We were not aware of all the details that were in that ABC report,” she told reporters.
“We made inquiries and we were told by DPS that the matter was resolved to the full satisfaction of the person involved, but they wanted strict confidentiality, which we respected.”
Sandell said she expected the party would still hang on to the seat and would preselect a candidate in coming days.
“We expect several excellent local candidates will put their hands up to run for the Greens in Prahran, and be a great local representative for their community,” she said.
“The people of Prahran want someone who will take on the old parties on the issues that are important, such as cost of living, housing and climate action, and the Greens will be putting up an excellent local candidate who will work hard on these issues”.
The Victorian Liberals said they would also run but were yet to select a candidate, though a source said there was “strong interest” among local female members in the area.
