"A lot of Liberal voters are switching their vote straight over to Labor," Mr Bandt said, later conceding that Labor had done well on Saturday night. Labor's Richard Wynne easily retained his seat of Richmond, which the Greens had hoped to win. While the seat of Melbourne appeared likely to be retained by the Greens, Northcote - a seat the minor party won at a by-election last year - almost certainly had gone back to Labor. There, the party's Kat Theophanous, daughter of former Labor MP Theo, looked set to win the seat. It was a surprise result for the Greens’ Lidia Thorpe, the first Aboriginal woman elected to the Victorian Parliament at a by-election last November. The party had expected to hold the seat. Ms Thorpe said this campaign had been “a little more nasty” than the 2017 byelection she won. The result for Prahran remained too tight to call.

Victorian Greens leader Samantha Ratnam (third from left) arrives with Greens MP Ellen Sandell at the party's election night reception. Credit:AAP At their Docklands election event, Greens members blamed the extreme negativity of the Labor Party’s campaign in the final weeks of the campaign. A series of mis-steps – ranging from a candidate posting inappropriate messages on social media, to a candidate using misogynistic lyrics in their rap music, through to a candidate being accused of rape – were exploited by Labor, they said. Greens members felt this had hurt, in particular, the push by the Greens to take Richmond off Mr Wynne. The long-serving Labor MP had been nervous about the result in recent days, but on Saturday night an elated – and relieved – Mr Wynne thanked a room full of raucous Labor supporters at Richmond’s Eureka Hotel. “This has been a landslide win by Labor," he said.

Key to Mr Wynne's win was Kevin Quoc Tran, a Liberal Party member who was not endorsed to run by the party, but who directed votes to Labor. Scrutineers said 75 per cent of Mr Quoc Tran’s preferences were flowing to Labor. Last election 21 per cent of voters in Richmond voted Liberal. Richmond Greens candidate Kathleen Maltzahn congratulated Mr Wynne on being re-elected. She said Labor had needed to bring in an ex-Prime Minister, Paul Keating, "to shore up the vote" and that Liberal voters had clearly swung behind him in order to deliver the seat. The seat of Melbourne, held by Ms Sandell, looked early like it could fall back to Labor's Jennifer Kanis, who previously held the seat. But by 10pm, Ms Sandell looked set to be returned for the Greens. Greens leader Samantha Ratnam voting at Brunswick North West Primary School. Credit:Justin McManus Greens MP Ellen Sandell told The Age on Saturday that it would be tough in the hard-fought inner-city electorate. "It’s been a challenging campaign," she said. "We’ve seen an unprecedented level of Labor attacks on us."