Battle for Malvern takes shape as Josh Frydenberg ally nominates

1 week ago 5

Leading Liberal woman Jacqueline Blackwell will nominate for the prized seat of Malvern, with former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg expected to endorse her pre-selection campaign.

Blackwell, the chair of the Liberal Women’s Council of Victoria, has in recent days made clear to supporters her intention to run in Malvern, a seat held by the Liberal Party since the electorate was established 80 years ago.

Josh Frydenberg and Amelia Hamer campaigning in Kooyong earlier this year.

It follows the decision earlier this month by former party leader Michael O’Brien, the local member since 2006, to not contest the next state election.

It is not clear yet whether Amelia Hamer, the Liberal Party candidate who earlier this year came within 1500 votes of snatching back the federal seat of Kooyong from independent Monique Ryan, will join the contest for the party’s safest metropolitan seat.

Hamer has taken soundings from O’Brien and is being strongly encouraged to run by other party figures but has started a new job at a stockbroking firm. As of Monday, she was yet to decide about her candidacy.

Xavier Boffa, a former advisor to former leader John Pesutto, has also emerged as a potential candidate for Malvern, with the Samuel Griffith Society executive director likely to nominate in coming days. Barrister Lana Collaris has publicly declared her candidacy.

Confirmation of Jacquie Blackwell’s nomination in Malvern follows her rise through the organisational ranks of the party.

Nominations for Liberal-held, lower house seats close at 12pm on Tuesday but the retirements of sitting Liberal MPs in Malvern, Croydon, Rowville and Benambra have prompted the party to leave open nominations in those four seats until a date to be fixed to enable more candidates to come forward.

Liberal Party state president Philip Davis said party members in Croydon, the most marginal Liberal-held seat in Victoria, only found out their local member was retiring the day before nominations opened for pre-selection.

“It would be completely unreasonable to stick to the closure deadline where members of the party did not know MPs were not going to contest the next election,” Davis said.

David Hodgett, the member for Croydon, will retire with the seat on a margin of just 1.18 per cent.

“Our position is that members of the party are entitled to nominate for any seat including seats where there is a sitting member. Where there is not a sitting member going around again, we have got to encourage good, democratic process to prevail.”

In Croydon, which long-serving MP David Hodgett will leave on a margin of just 1.18 per cent, local lawyer and party stalwart Grant Hutchinson has emerged as the leading conservative candidate, with data analyst Toby Wooldridge, considered one of the sharpest young minds in the moderate wing, telling supporters he won’t run.

In Rowville, another marginal electorate that will be targeted by Labor at next year’s state election, Irene Ling is the early front-runner with the support of conservative powerbroker Michael Sukkar. Her putative rival, former Aston candidate Manny Cicchiello, has decided not to run.

A potential wildcard in Rowville is 28-year-old Tahnee Wells, the daughter of retiring MP Kim Wells. Wells has strong local support but will face accusations of nepotism if she tries to move into her father’s electoral office.

“There hasn’t been a rush of nominations,” one party observer noted. “Most people seem to think it reflects the mood in the party, which is subdued about our prospects.”

Benambra, a nominally safe regional electorate centred on the border town of Wodonga, is being vacated by Bill Tilley for health reasons. In the absence of Tilley’s personal vote built up over 20 years in parliament, the party will face a fierce challenge to the seat from the National Party and, most likely, a country independent at the November 2026 election.

Confirmation of Blackwell’s nomination in Malvern follows her rise through the organisational ranks of the party.

In August, she was elected chair of the Liberal Women’s Council of Victoria at its AGM, replacing Marg Hawker. A month earlier, she became chair of the Kooyong Federal Electoral Conference which carries a seat on the state’s party’s administrative committee, which serves at its governing board.

Blackwell joined the administrative committee after it voted to lend Pesutto $1.55 million to help him pay the legal costs he owed fellow MP Moira Deeming and avoid bankruptcy. The committee is being sued by some of its own members over that decision.

Prospective candidates are prohibited from discussing pre-selection matters with journalists.

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