Poll fight heats up for Victoria's regions

The Nationals are locked in a battle to regain key heartland seats from Independents in Victoria's regions in the state's upcoming poll.

"The Nationals are in a death spiral," Mildura Independent Ali Cupper says.

She is sitting in her car campaigning in yet another pre-poll, fighting for a second shot in the regional seat.

In 2018, the solicitor, child protection practitioner and lecturer won the seat by a 0.3 per cent margin, the fourth non-conservative party MP to win the seat in its 95-year history.

The Nationals want Mildura back and are aggressively pursuing the seat.

Ms Cupper insists she is up for the challenge.

"(The Nationals) have put their donors before the people and they are being shown up," she tells AAP.

A lack of results in the three Nationals terms that preceded her stint gave them little ammunition against her in 2022, Ms Cupper said.

"(For) health, in four years I've secured more than three times the Nats were able to secure in 12 years," she tells AAP.

"Housing, we've secured 336 times more housing funding than the Nats could in 12 years."

She said her independence was a bargaining chip for Mildura, which was still recovering from the Kennett-era privatisation of its hospital and decommissioning of its rail line in 1993. 

"It's helped us to get the attention of both parties, because they are now fighting over us," she says.

The hospital came back into public hands in 2020, but Ms Cupper continues to push for Mildura's reintegration into Victoria's rail system, something neither major party has committed to.

"The price of my support in the event of a hung parliament ... would be rail," she said.

"To get that train back because at that point, that's when we feel like we're part of the state again."

Returning from an announcement in the LaTrobe Valley, Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh is unmoved by the Independent's funding boasts. 

"The proof's in the pudding," Mr Walsh tells AAP, citing a half-hour increase in waiting times at Mildura Hospital's emergency department and burgeoning surgery waiting lists during Ms Cupper's maiden term.

"There's been a fail on all the key indicators over the last four years and that's under Ali's watch, so I just don't think she's telling people the truth."

The Nationals have been taking aim at Ms Cupper's record of aligning with the Labor government.

Their candidate, small business owner Jade Benham, was forced to walk back claims Ms Cupper voted with Labor 70 per cent of the time in parliament after legislative assembly data showed she voted with the government 53 per cent of the time, or 59 per cent including voting with both sides.

Ms Benham opted to reshape the claim in her next flyer rather than retract or correct it with the Sunraysia Daily.

"Ali Cupper votes with Daniel Andrews most of the time," the updated pamphlet read.

Ms Benham declined to comment.

On the Goulburn River In Victoria's north, another independent is fighting for her third term in a seat once known as the "jewel in the crown of the Country Party".

From an early voting centre in Shepparton, incumbent Independent Suzanna Sheed says the Nationals were shocked to lose the seat in 2014 and desperate to win it back.

Ms Sheed says her constituents' key concerns are healthcare access and roads and it's in the latter the opposition has made its big play.

If they win office this week, the Liberal Nationals will fund Victoria's 20 per cent contribution to the first stage of the Shepparton bypass, a project the regional city has lobbied for since the mid-1990s.

Recent floods underscored the need for the road, which includes a second, higher river crossing that would have prevented a repeat of the isolation of nearby Maroopna.

"That had a really significant impact on the western side of the river and all those who live here," Ms Sheed says.

Cost-blowouts and inter-government spats have left the project perennially delayed, but Ms Sheed is proud of the investment she has attracted for Shepparton.

"I've been able to attract over $1.5 billion worth of investment, with about $230 million for the first stages of the hospital and up to a billion dollars in rail expenditure," she says.

The Nationals' Shepparton candidate Kim O'Keefe was unable to comment, but leader Peter Walsh said much of Ms Sheed's regional rail success had been funded by a federal Liberal-National government.

"Suzanna has been very creative in the in the successes that she has claimed," Mr Walsh says. 

"If you're going to claim you've achieved something, I think it has to be able to actually stand scrutiny of where that money came from."

The battle in the coal country seat of Morwell in Victoria's southeast will also be hotly contested.

Former National-turned-Independent Russell Northe, who held the seat on the tightest of margins in 2018, is vacating, with 12 candidates battling it out.

Labor has pledged to reinvigorate the State Electricity Commission, including an office in Morwell and enshrining it in the constitution.

"We're very proud to have stood with the valley in good times and in challenging times. And we will always do that," Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters.

But the Liberal Nationals have poured water on the plan, saying the move will not save Victorians money on their power bills.

The Nationals' Morwell candidate Martin Cameron said it had been almost four years since Mr Andrews had come to the Latrobe Valley.

"While Labor wants people to focus on nostalgia, Daniel Andrews' announcement also includes a deliberate policy to force the early closure of our remaining power stations," he said.

"Today's announcement that the SEC will be enshrined in the constitution is another empty promise."