What Victoria’s 28 November election means for Indian-Australian voters

On a December evening at Tarneit station, Rifai Raheem stood in front of a crowd of commuters who had given up waiting for a bus. He had helped organise the rally through the Tarneit Transport Action Group after petitions to local MPs produced no commitments. “The West needs better buses to address inadequate public transport options, reduce traffic congestion, and ensure equitable access for fast growing communities,” he said, according to a statement circulated at the time. Raheem is now the Victorian Greens candidate for Tarneit at the state election on Saturday 28 November 2026, in a district where more than one in four residents were born in India.

Tarneit is one of a handful of Victorian districts where the Indian-Australian community is large enough that both major parties and the minor ones are actively courting it. The campaign between now and 28 November will test how that translates into candidates, policies and votes.

The numbers behind the seats

At the 2021 Census, 258,193 people in Victoria were born in India, and 371,901 people reported Indian ancestries, according to the Victorian Government’s Indian community profile drawing on ABS data. The same profile lists Wyndham as the local government area with the largest Indian community in the state at 65,433 people, followed by Casey at 44,967 and Whittlesea at 23,814. Nationally, the ABS reported that as at 30 June 2025 those born in India numbered 971,020, “the largest group born overseas for the first time on record”, narrowly ahead of England at 970,950.

The concentration is sharpest at suburb level. ABS QuickStats records Tarneit’s population at 56,370 in 2021, with 16,231 residents born in India (28.8 per cent), and Punjabi the most common language other than English at 15.9 per cent. Point Cook recorded 66,781 people with 9,940 born in India (14.9 per cent). In the south-east, Clyde North recorded 31,681 people, 5,771 of them India-born (18.2 per cent), with Punjabi at 11.5 per cent and Malayalam at 3.7 per cent. Most of Clyde North sits within the district of Berwick, with the balance of the growth corridor spread across Cranbourne and neighbouring seats.

The dates that matter

Three official sources agree on the core timetable. The Victorian Electoral Commission, the Parliament of Victoria and the independent Australian Election Tracker all list election day as Saturday 28 November 2026, with voting open 8am to 6pm. The VEC notes that state elections are held “on the last Saturday in November every 4 years”.

The enrolment cutoff has moved, and this is the detail most likely to catch people out. The VEC states plainly: “You need to be correctly enrolled by 8 pm on Tuesday 3 November to vote in the 2026 state election.” That is Melbourne Cup Day, and it is one week earlier than at previous elections, because under the amended Electoral Act the roll now closes at 8pm on the day the writ is issued rather than a week later. The Parliament of Victoria’s election page gives the same deadline, Tuesday 3 November, and the VEC’s own explainer on the 2026 Act amendments sets out the change. The VEC is the authority that runs the roll, so 3 November is the date to work to.

Early voting runs from Wednesday 18 November to Friday 27 November and closes at 6pm on the final day. The Victorian Electoral Commission will publish centre locations and opening hours closer to the election. Postal vote applications open on Wednesday 4 November and close at 6pm on Wednesday 25 November. Nominations close at noon on Monday 9 November. Telephone voting, for people who are blind, have low vision or have a motor impairment, opens on 18 November. Every early voting centre will also be an election day voting centre, and a low-sensory mobile voting session will run in every district on Tuesday 17 November between 10am and 4pm.

To enrol you must be an Australian citizen, aged 18 or over, and have lived in Victoria for longer than a month, and the VEC says you “must enrol within 21 days of meeting these requirements”. Seventeen-year-olds can lodge a form now and are enrolled automatically on their 18th birthday. Enrolment is done online through the AEC, by downloadable form, or by calling 131 832. Voting is compulsory, and the VEC warns that if you are enrolled and do not vote, “we may send you a fine”. For newly naturalised citizens, many of whom in these suburbs took the oath only in the past few years, the 3 November cutoff is the practical deadline for a first state vote.

Who is standing in the growth-corridor seats

The Liberal Party has named Venkat Ram Upparlapalle as its candidate for Tarneit, announced on 17 August 2026 according to Wyndham TV. He is a Truganina resident who came to Australia as an international student, works as an IT lead in Victoria’s energy sector, runs a property buyers agency, and contested Wyndham City Council’s Wimba Ward in 2024. He attended the earlier Williams Landing bus protest, and in the organisers’ statement for the December 2024 Tarneit protest he said that when he door-knocked as a council candidate “many people raised concerns about the bus services in the Tarneit area”.

The sitting Labor member for Tarneit, Dylan Wight, is recontesting. In Point Cook, Labor’s Mathew Hilakari is recontesting and the Liberals have preselected Raja Reddy, a migration agent and small business owner who stood in Laverton in 2022 and for Wyndham council’s Featherbrook Ward in 2024, reported by Wyndham TV on 22 August 2026. The Greens have preselected Ponraj Krishna Pandi for Point Cook. In Werribee, Labor’s John Lister, who won the February 2025 by-election by 693 votes after a 10.1 per cent two-party swing, faces Liberal Reece Clark and Greens candidate Tushar Kumar, an IT professional and migrant who says he will “push for what matters to our community including strong public transport, affordable housing and climate-resilient infrastructure”. In Kororoit, Labor’s Luba Grigorovitch is recontesting against Greens candidate Joyce McDonald. In Melton, where Labor’s Steve McGhie announced his retirement on 23 September 2025, Labor has preselected Broden Borg, the Liberals Jarrod Bingham, the Greens Veronika Levchenkova, and the New Democrats Jasleen Kaur, a Melton resident of ten years who chairs a local not-for-profit and sits on Melton City Council’s Safe City Advisory Board.

In the south-east, Labor’s Pauline Richards is recontesting Cranbourne against Greens candidate Annalise Mercer. In Berwick, former Opposition Leader Brad Battin, now Shadow Minister for Police and Corrections and a former Victoria Police officer, is recontesting against Labor’s Rana Khan, a serving police officer of 14 years who migrated from Pakistan in 2001 and received the Victoria Police Multicultural Award in 2023. Khan told the Berwick Star News in July 2026: “Crime has risen everywhere, especially youth offending. We can reduce crime, but we can’t get rid of crime.” He also said: “We are all Australians. We have to represent everyone in the community.” The Greens have preselected Roshan De Silva and the Victorian Socialists Nalinda Amarasiri Gunawardana.

In the upper house, the Liberals selected Melbourne deputy lord mayor Roshena Campbell on 7 August 2026 to lead the Western Metropolitan ticket, ahead of sitting MP Trung Luu, after Moira Deeming was disendorsed. Businessman and community figure Dinesh Gourisetty had won the party’s original preselection for that position on 29 March 2026, but withdrew the next day over a character reference he had provided in court, saying he “acted in good faith”, and the party then blocked him from the re-run. Campbell has said of her local government experience: “On council, I’ve seen first-hand the problems our state faces. From crime being out of control to struggling families and businesses, and I’m ready to help deliver our plan to fix it.”

The issues community figures are raising

Crime and bail have been the sharpest point of debate. After Victoria’s bail legislation passed in March 2025, then Premier Jacinta Allan said: “I have listened to victims of crime and Victorians, and I have acted. These are the toughest bail laws in the country.” Melbourne bus driver Poonam Singh, who was attacked on a night shift and describes herself as a victim of youth crime, told SBS Hindi she backed the changes: “When someone repeatedly commits offences, it’s no longer a mistake; it’s an intention to harm the vulnerable.” Nagesh Joshi, who runs a West Melbourne senior citizens group and whose home was allegedly burgled in 2010, said the Premier was “spot on in saying the Indian community has been impacted”. In the same report, Vasan Srinivasan, president of the Federation of Indian Associations of Victoria, argued the Premier’s comments were an effort to woo the Indian community. Legal bodies, separately, criticised the laws strongly. Allan resigned on 28 July 2026 and Ben Carroll, sworn in as Premier the same day, leads Labor into the election.

Transport and cost of living run alongside it. At the Tarneit rally, Hoppers Crossing resident Delwyn Ogden described “waiting up to 40 mins for a bus or missing the last bus around 9pm”, and Tarneit resident Saajidh Zizam said bus travel added “at least 35 to 50 minutes” to his commute, leaving him reliant on his wife for station pick-ups. Better Buses campaign coordinator Elyse Cunningham framed the actions as a run-up to the state budget.

What is unresolved

Nominations close at noon on Monday 9 November, so the field in every seat named here can still change. Voters wanting the authoritative list should check the VEC’s candidate pages after nominations close, rather than relying on party announcements. What is fixed is the calendar: enrol by 8pm on 3 November, vote early from 18 November, or turn up on 28 November.