Source : the age
“You sweating?” Cecelia Cooper, the co-moderator of a multicultural candidate forum for Shepparton voters, asks Nationals candidate Shane Sali.
“Go easy on me Cecelia,” Sali says. “Never,” Cooper responds.
They’re both smiling, and some of the voters at the Door Bells Women’s Migrant Network forum on Tuesday night with them, laugh too.
It’s a prelude to one of the first questions that opens the event, and sets the tone for the night.
If John Pesutto’s relationship with the Liberal Party was a romance, his friends would have staged an intervention years ago.
Over the course of their courtship, which began more than 30 years ago, the former opposition leader has been rejected, dumped and left with a multi-million dollar legal bill.
But the 56-year-old remains devoted to the party, convinced that this time it might be different.
A notorious pothole in Melbourne’s east has been filled overnight after becoming a social media star in the run-up to the state election.
Sitting at the intersection of Mahoneys and Canterbury roads in Forest Hill and straddling the electorates of Glen Waverley and Ringwood, the pothole had been there since at least December, according to Google Street View images. Liberal candidate for Ringwood Nick McGowan says it dated back to at least mid-2025.
One local resident, whose identity The Age has not been able to confirm, created an Instagram page drawing attention to the problem on November 1, with the bio “just a pothole living my best life”. Since then, the account has gathered more than 550 followers and posted daily updates on the gaping hole.
About three-quarters of the way through her campaign stop in Deer Park last Monday, after she had railed against state debt, working from home laws and trans women playing sport, Pauline Hanson took some questions from the floor.
Taking unvetted questions from voters is always a risk, even at an event for One Nation faithful. But for Hanson, authenticity and vulnerability isn’t optional, it’s the entire brand.
Locals asked the One Nation leader about the greatest risk to Australia’s way of life (Islam, socialism, Marxism, “in that order”), crime, and Christian churches being converted to mosques.
Less than three months on from delivering an emotional valedictory speech to the Victorian parliament, following what can only be described as a messy two terms in the lower house, outgoing Ringwood MP Will Fowles is gearing up to have another crack.
The 48-year-old’s name quietly appeared on the Victorian Electoral Commission website on Monday, where he is listed as one of 11 people running in the Melbourne seat of Preston.
When asked about the move to Preston on Monday, Fowles said he saw the November 28 election more as an advocacy opportunity, and felt there was “no greater symbol of government inaction on housing than the decade-long failure to deliver new homes at Preston market”.
It was just six months ago in the regional electorate of Farrer that voters resoundingly chose David Farley to be their next elected official in Canberra and, in the process, delivered One Nation its first lower house federal MP.
Triggered by the resignation of former federal opposition leader Sussan Ley, the byelection result in Farrer not only broke 77 years of Coalition safety in the seat, but also sent an ominous warning to regional electorates across the border preparing for this month’s state election and staring down challengers from the populist minor party.
Taking in Albury, Griffith and Deniliquin, the expansive rural electorate of Farrer covers 126,563 square kilometres in the south-west corner of NSW. At its most southern point is the Murray River, where on the other side of the water sits the state electorate of Shepparton – an area that cuts plenty of similarities with Farrer.
Last week, we heard from voters in Sydenham, a once safe Labor seat that formed part of the “red wall” of outer-suburban Melbourne electorates.
After years leaning left, voters told investigative reporter Liam Mannix that they feel increasingly ignored by the government, with infrastructure, roads and hospital wait times proving to be major issues.
In Ringwood, another seat currently held by Labor, the attack from the Liberals and a number of minor party and independent candidates is well and truly under way.
Reporter Bridget McArthur last week took us inside a lively candidate’s forum where the Family First candidate for the seat was sidelined by a colleague who insisted he speak on her behalf. We also heard from locals that some of the main concerns going into this election are potholes, affordable housing and crime.
Welcome back to week 2 of our hot seats election coverage, where we’re taking a hyperlocal look at the burning issues in the electorates of Shepparton, Ringwood, Sydenham and Hawthorn in the lead-up to polling day on November 28.
In case you missed it, here’s everything we covered in week one.
Hawthorn MP John Pesutto could return to cabinet if the Liberals win the upcoming state election, with the prized Treasury portfolio potentially being set aside for him after the first post-election budget.
Four opposition sources, speaking to The Age on the condition of anonymity to discuss post-election plans, said the former party leader is being pushed internally for the role that would see him elevated to the frontbench within months if the Coalition win office.
“He is a talent and has a policy mind, and that is what we will need if we win,” one Liberal MP told The Age.
