The campaign for the hotly contested Melbourne seat of Kooyong seems to have already begun.
On the Today show this morning, Amelia Hamer was asked about recent reports Josh Frydenberg could oust her as the Liberal candidate, but instead insisted she was focused on listening to voters rather than addressing internal party politics.
The Liberal candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer.Credit: Eddie Jim
Earlier this year, the 31-year-old Oxford-educated grand-niece of former Victorian premier Sir Rupert “Dick” Hamer won the right to try and win back the historically blue-ribbon seat from independent MP Monique Ryan. But, in recent days, reports emerged Frydenberg, a former federal treasurer touted as a potential future party leader, was considering a late comeback to contest the seat he sensationally lost to Ryan in the 2022 federal election, thereby displacing Hamer as the party’s candidate.
Despite calls for Frydenberg’s return from some high-profile Liberals, including former minister Karen Andrews, he ruled himself out from making a bid for Liberal preselection in a social media post yesterday.
This morning, Hamer was asked if Frydenberg ruling out a comeback – and thereby averting the damaging ousting of a woman in favour of a man in a party that has been criticised for poor female representation – was a relief.
In response, Hamer said:
Look, what I’m focused on is actually just being out here in the community, talking to people, understanding their issues. And I think the people of Kooyong, that’s what they’re interested in, too. They’re actually not particularly interested in the internal politics of the Liberal Party.
You know, I was at my jiu jitsu club last night and someone came up to me and they said, ‘oh, I’ve seen you in the paper’. I thought, ‘oh, here we go.’
And they said, ‘yeah, can you come down and have a look at my local tennis club?’
And that’s, you know, that’s the way that the people of Kooyong are thinking.
