Heed the lessons of Northcote and get back to "bread-and-butter" politics or face defeat at the next election.
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That's the message key figures in the Labor Party are sending to Premier Daniel Andrews after the disastrous loss to the Greens of a seat the party held for 90 years.
Senior players in Labor's right now believe the Andrews government is in a battle for survival, with the Northcote byelection defeat seen by some in the party as a verdict on the ALP's performance in office.
The right also believes the shock felt by the party regarding the scale of the loss is an opportunity to advance their policy agenda.
Labor was trounced in Northcote, with a swing of more than 11 per cent after a barrage of progressive social policies failed to sway voters in the inner-north.
Mr Andrews is facing pressure to switch focus to "bread-and-butter" issues like transport, jobs and hospitals as the fight swings to suburban marginal electorates where voters "don't care about safe schools", as one senior figure told The Age.
Many in the party are unconvinced by the official line that the disaster in Northcote was largely due to the changing demographics in a rapidly gentrifying area and will argue the defeat should be taken as a warning of trouble in the broader electorate.
The party's right believes it is moving into a stronger position to have its voice heard and will officially heal a split on Tuesday that has seen three MPs, aligned to the conservative "shoppies" union, the SDA, exiled from the faction since 2015.
Deputy Premier James Merlino, Pascoe Vale MP Lizzie Blandthorn and South East Victoria upper house member Daniel Mulino will all be formally welcomed back into the right caucus when it meets at state parliament on Tuesday.
An SDA-aligned MP confirmed the feud within the Labor right was at an end.
The move brings to an end a stoush that began when cabinet minister Adam Somyurek and colleagues defected from the SDA grouping.
Mr Somyurek was then accused of bullying his chief of staff Dimity Paul, who is married to a Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association official.
Mr Somyurek, an increasingly powerful factional leader in the party, denied the allegation but it cost him his job on the front bench and the bad blood between the South Eastern Metro upper house MP and his former shoppies colleagues has lingered.
But with the feud set to officially end on Tuesday, the right now plans to prosecute its argument that Labor must concentrate on a "jobs and growth" strategy if it is to avoid being booted out of office after one term.
There is no threat to the leadership of Mr Andrews, who comes from Labor's socialist left faction, with all the major groupings within the ALP convinced the present leadership is the government's best chance of clinching a second term.
But many in the party fear the trouncing in Northcote was a verdict, in part at least, on how the government was travelling after three years in office and its emphasis on being the most progressive state government in Australia.
The right fears for suburban Labor seats such as Frankston, Carrum, Mordialloc and Bentleigh, which are held on knife-edge margins and could cost the ALP government if they fall next November.
"They don't care about safe schools in those seats," one party figure said.
