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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has made a rare appearance in the seat of Kooyong, joining Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer at the Tower Hotel in Hawthorn East — a venue that has become known for its vocal anti-Monique Ryan campaigning with an enormous anti-Monique Ryan sign mounted on the pub.
It marked just his second visit to the seat the Liberals are eager to win back.
Despite the significance of the visit, the man hoping to become prime minister did not take questions from the media.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Kooyong candidate Amelia Hamer visited The Tower hotel in Hawthorn East. Credit: James Brickwood
The Age was present when Dutton arrived at the venue, delayed by anti-nuclear protesters stationed outside the pub and dressed in hazmat suits.
Inside, Dutton thanked dozens of Liberal supporters and posed for photos with children in party-branded T-shirts.
I attempted to approach Dutton to ask several questions — most pressingly, for his response to reports of neo-Nazis impersonating Liberal campaigners in Kooyong, which dominated local headlines today.
However, a media advisor from Dutton’s office informed me that questions would not be permitted, as the event was not a press conference.
It appears media attendees were invited solely for photos and vision, with no opportunity to engage the opposition leader directly.
Dutton accepted an anti-Monique Ryan stubby holder bearing the slogan: “Monique, please do not take this beer!”
Dutton and Hamer with Domenico, 6 months and Alessia, 4.Credit: James Brickwood
The merchandise also claimed Ryan had voted with the Greens 77 per cent of the time — a frequently cited figure by the Liberals.
In front of cameras, Dutton spoke with Liberal volunteers and party faithful about Labor’s opposition to nuclear energy — claiming the Tower Hotel can’t “operate on intermittent power alone” — and addressed housing affordability, saying “young couples are now putting off having children because they can’t afford a house.”
The visit to Kooyong was part of a broader blitz across Melbourne’s marginal seats, with Dutton also stopping in Dunkley and Aston today.
After one of the most dramatic days in Kooyong, the opposition leader came, smiled, and left — all without taking a single question.
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Back at the Malvern pre-polling station where Josh Frydenberg – the former member for Kooyong who lost the seat for the Liberals at the last federal election – appeared alongside Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer this afternoon.
The pair chatted to voters together, many of whom happily recognised Frydenberg — although one woman didn’t.
“Is this your husband?” she asked Hamer, who laughed.
Josh Frydenberg and Amelia Hamer at Malvern prepoll this afternoon.Credit: Rachael Dexter
The former federal treasurer has been conspicuously quiet throughout the campaign, telling me he has refused all media interviews.
When I asked if he was helping out in any formal capacity on election day, he joked that he couldn’t escape me.
“You’ve doorstopped me standing next to Amelia, I have very few places I can go,” he said.
“Although I could be like Amelia’s opponent [Independent MP Monique Ryan] and run away from the camera — and I won’t do that,” he added, referencing an awkward interaction between Ryan and a Sky News journalist last week.
Josh Frydenberg, the former MP for Kooyong, said he was optimistic ahead of Saturday’s results.Credit: Rachael Dexter
Ryan — who ousted Frydenberg in 2022 — was standing just metres up the queue of voters waiting to cast their ballots before the booth closed for the day.
When asked how he thought the race was going in his former electorate, Frydenberg said: “Well, it’s very encouraging today. There’s lots of people holding Amelia’s how-to-vote card and the Liberal how-to-vote card.
“All will be revealed on Saturday. But this is obviously a new part of the electorate, and it feels encouraging.
“I hope it’s replicated across the electorate, and I hope Peter Dutton is successful and the Coalition is returned to government because I think there’s a lot at stake at this election. I think a vote for the Liberal Party will ensure that Australia’s economy is stronger and Australia is safer as a country. And some of the fracturing we’ve seen in our social cohesion will be brought to an end.”
It all feels very on-brand for the escalating tensions at the Wills pre-polling booth in Brunswick.
On Tuesday, witnesses reported a man in a Collingwood jumper lobbing an estimated half-dozen eggs – first at the One Nation candidate and his supporters as they handed out how-to-vote cards. Then he turned his attention to a van adorned with One Nation branding and two Australian flags.
A man in a Collingwood football jumper witnesses at the Brunswick polling booth alleged threw eggs at the One Nation candidate.
Tuesday’s egging was just the latest example of intensifying aggressive electoral behaviour in Wills.
On Wednesday morning, mobile billboards on trailers parked outside the Davies Street pre-polling centre warned voters: “Voting for the Greens will cost you.”
The signs were funded by Better Australia, a group my colleague Cara Waters reported on earlier today. The group, whose founder is also a member of the Labor Party, is also campaigning in teal seats, but in Wills is focused on the Greens.
Labor’s Peter Khalil is also being targeted by others – more aggressively, and illegally.
Since campaigning began, around half of Khalil’s signs have been vandalised – particularly in the seat’s north, where one Victorian Labor figure, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Age it was near impossible to put up a sign without it being immediately defaced.
This week, a large Khalil sign on the corner of Sydney Road and Allen Street in Coburg – near the pre-poll voting booth – was vandalised with “FULLY COOKED” scrawled across it.
A Peter Khalil sign that was vandalised this week.
That was tame compared with the abuse scrawled on other signs in recent weeks.
Others have defaced signs with slurs such as “Zionist Dog”, reflecting anger from those who believe he should have spoken out more forcefully on the Gaza conflict.
In some instances, his signs have been defaced while leaving neighbouring corflutes promoting socialist candidates untouched.
A vandalised Peter Khalil sign in Coburg, alongside unvandalised corflutes for Socialist Alliance candidates.
And it’s not just Khalil’s signage under siege, as my colleague Brittany Busch reported this morning.
Activists scaled the roof of his Coburg office on Sydney Road to protest what they said was his lack of action on climate change and the conflict in Gaza.
In one social media video, an activist speaking over protest chants said Khalil was not representing constituents on “the climate crisis which is being totally not taken seriously and the genocide in Gaza which is being totally ignored”.
Khalil is the government’s special envoy for social cohesion and has held Wills since 2016.
I spoke with Khalil about it on Wednesday morning. He said graffiti on his signs was regrettable and a sign of the poor behaviour of others.
“It’s a reflection on the people who think that is an appropriate way of behaving. We have not done any of that – our volunteers and our staff have conducted themselves with integrity and grace,” he said.
Another poster put up recently in the electorate features an image of Khalil in Iraq in 2004, implying he supported the war and US occupation.
Khalil has publicly stated he opposed the war in Iraq. He worked for the Australian Department of Defence after Saddam Hussein was removed to help rebuild the Iraqi public service.
Khalil also urged calm at the voting booth. He said it was fine for people to be passionate about their politics but that it needed to remain peaceful at polling booths.
“It is fundamentally important for our democracy that we have a peaceful experience at the polling booths – that we are respectful to each other, and that we’re not intimidating or physically harassing people or any of that. That’s unacceptable.”
It is not just Labor signs being defaced. Greens candidate Samantha Ratnam has also had a series of signs across the south of the electorate defaced with a Hitler moustache scrawled on her face.
A vandalised Samantha Ratnam sign in Brunswick. Credit: Clay Lucas
The effort required for these examples of Wills graffiti, pales in comparison with the time put into vandalising a Clive Palmer sign on the corner of Lygon Street and Glenlyon Road in Brunswick. Originally the sign read:“Vote 1 Trumpet of Patriots”.
It now reads “Vote 0 Rump Riot”, with some cartoon buttocks pasted over Palmer’s face.
A defaced Clive Palmer billboard in Brunswick. Credit: Andrew McLeod
Liberal candidate for Bruce Zahid Safi has made a habit of not responding to my emails, texts or calls.
When I tracked him down last week, he power-walked in the opposite direction and dodged my questions. He paused briefly to talk to me before getting in his car and driving away. But now, I can relax – it turns out it’s not personal.
Star Journal journalist Sahar Foladi spotted Safi at Dandenong Stadium on Tuesday evening, and tried to speak with him. As in my case, he walked briskly in the opposite direction.
Foladi told me this morning that Safi had been not been responding in full to questions and emails in recent weeks – about funding announcements and other election stories.
“We’re emailing him for answers and statements but we don’t hear anything back,” she says.“So when I caught up with him, he was like, ‘I’m going to the toilet’,” Foladi says.
“I was standing outside waiting thinking, ‘What is he going to do?’”
After a few minutes, he emerged from the men’s toilets – with his mobile pressed to his ear and eyes looking at the ground.
“Then he pretended he was so busy on the phone talking. He didn’t look at me, walked straight past me. I kept asking questions, he didn’t respond. He didn’t say anything.”
Foladi said she asked Safi about why he was hiding from the media, but also gave him the opportunity to share any information about himself.
“I said, ‘A lot of people don’t know much about you if you want to say something about yourself’. He didn’t answer anything.”
Safi then left the stadium without acknowledging the journalist.
Foladi has seen the footage of the encounter, obtained by this blog, and said it’s caused a few laughs among her family but, ultimately, she thinks it’s a concerning pattern.
“It’s unusual for anyone to be honest,” she says. “Why would you run away from the media? Especially when you’re standing as a candidate? How do you expect to run and answer media questions if and when you’re elected?”
In an article published on Wednesday, the Star Journal summarised the scandals engulfing Safi’s campaign and their efforts to get answers.
“Outside, he stood with his volunteers with his back against the journalist and phone still against his ear before walking to the side of the building and appearing to leave in a car,” Foladi wrote.
“Star Journal asked the volunteers about Safi’s whereabouts and if he would be back, to which one of them said, ‘your guess is a good as ours’.”
I sent the videos to Safi, I’ll let you know if we get a response from him.
A Liberal Party spokesperon said: “The video shows Mr Safi at the pre-poll booth in Dandenong, and going to the toilet, so to suggest he is running away from the media is laughable.
“It is also false that Mr Safi has ignored the publication the journalist works for. Mr Safi engaged with the journalist and publication when first endorsed, when asked for comments regarding local roads and infrastructure, and when asked for responses to an eight-question candidate survey, which he completed in full.”
Josh Frydenberg, the former Liberal member for Kooyong who lost the seat at the last federal election, has condemned neo-Nazis who appeared at a pre-polling station earlier today.
Frydenberg was at the Malvern pre-poll this afternoon for a pop-up appearance alongside Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer.
Frydenberg, who earlier this year launched the Dor Foundation to tackle antisemitism – particularly the targeting of Jewish Australians online and on university campuses – hadn’t yet seen footage of the stunt when we spoke.
Josh Frydenberg and Amelia Hamer at a Malvern pre-poll this afternoon.Credit: Rachael Dexter
I showed it to him on my phone.
“I think it’s disgusting and dangerous,” he said afterwards.
“I would hope that the relevant authorities would take action because the situation in Australia is already unbearable for many in the Jewish community.
“To see this type of behaviour occurring on the eve of our election, as people go in to exercise their democratic right, is sickening. The people who do it have the worst of intentions, and we should not allow this type of manipulative, insightful, dangerous behaviour to take place.”
As we reported earlier, Joel Davis, of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, appeared on the campaign trail Wednesday afternoon in a T-shirt imitating Liberal Party branding, handing out the pamphlets to people waiting in line to vote in the Kooyong electorate.
The pamphlets were the same antisemitic flyers distributed in several Melbourne suburbs earlier today.
Joel Davis, right, of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network at a Kooyong pre-polling centre on Wednesday.
He was flanked by men in costume beards and fake Orthodox Jewish clothing, and brandishing larger versions of the pamphlets that were distributed to homes in Jewish neighbourhoods in Goldstein and Macnamara on Tuesday morning.
The Australian Electoral Commission said it was “aware of the flyers” and “reviewing them to ensure that they comply with authorisation rules”. But a spokesperson added that “while the AEC understands that the content of these flyers will evoke a strong emotional reaction”, the agency itself “cannot make determinations about the content of electoral communications”.
“In saying this … while the Electoral Act doesn’t prohibit the use of a political party’s logo, there may be other potential legal remedies that would fall outside of electoral laws.”
The AEC also noted it has no legal power to intervene in behaviour beyond a six-metre exclusion zone extending from the entrance to a polling place, but “has been consistently calling on campaigners to behave respectfully and lawfully during this election campaign”. If voters feel threatened, they should contact police, the spokesperson said.
Liberal candidate for Kooyong Amelia Hamer has slammed the appearance of Neo-nazis impersonating her party at a Kooyong pre-poll centre this afternoon.
Joel Davis, of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network, appeared on the campaign trail Wednesday afternoon in a T-shirt imitating Liberal Party branding, handing out the pamphlets to people waiting in line to vote.
Joel Davis, right, of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network at a Kooyong pre-polling centre on Wednesday.
The pamphlets were the same antisemitic flyers distributed in several Melbourne suburbs earlier today.
He was flanked by men in costume beards and fake Orthodox Jewish clothing, and brandishing larger versions of the pamphlets that were distributed to homes in Jewish neighbourhoods in Goldstein and Macnamara on Tuesday morning.
Kooyong independent MP Monique Ryan also slammed the stunt in a statement: “Antisemitism has no place in our country. I’m appalled at the neo-Nazi disruption at Kew pre-poll today.”
Davis and two other men were filmed shouting catchphrases from the pamphlets, which claim the Liberals plan to “give the Jews everything they want” as well as other statements The Age has chosen not to publish.
Davis has been bragging about his stunts to followers online.
It’s the latest in a series of stunts on the campaign trail by far-right agitators linked to the neo-Nazi group as they seek to hijack the national debate and launch their own political ambitions.
Hamer quickly issued a statement on Wednesday after Davis’ appearance.
“I am appalled by the atrocious, antisemitic material being circulated and paraded at the Kew Early Voting Centre by the National Socialist Network, which includes a manipulated Liberal logo,” she said.
“There is no place for racism in Australia. I am proud to stand with the Jewish community and Israel.”
The AEC was approached for comment.
State Liberal MP for Kew Jess Wilson said it was “absolutely abhorrent that these individuals feel so emboldened to proudly display their Jew-hate on our streets.
“As a result of a complete failure of leadership in this country and state, antisemitism has been permitted to fester, grow, and be normalised,” she said.
Neo-Nazis have imitated the Liberal Party in fake election material, distributing antisemitic leaflets in Melbourne letterboxes and at pre-polling centres days out from the election.
It’s the latest in a series of stunts on the campaign trail by the neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Network, as they declare war on the Liberals as “traitors” and launch their own political ambitions.
The pamphlets, seen by The Age and “authorised” by NSN figure Joel Davis, use Liberal branding, including the conservative party’s blue colour, as well as logos that have been edited so that the Israeli flag replaces the Australian one, in an imitation of genuine election campaign material.
Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson has said the party won’t be intimidated by the neo-Nazis’ stunts.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“Our plan to give Jews everything they want”, they read, alongside a list of fake policies such as “abolish free speech” and “give Jews free money”.
On Wednesday, Davis posted a video of himself in a fake Liberal Party T-shirt appearing to distribute the pamphlets in a suburban street.
The Zionist Federation of Australia said the leaflets were dropped in Macnamara and Goldstein – two Melbourne seats with large Jewish populations.
A Liberal Party spokesperson condemned the leaflets.
“We are disgusted by the atrocious material featuring a manipulated Liberal logo that is being circulated by the National Socialist Network,” they said.
“We demand they cease immediately.”
Macnamara MP Josh Burns has called out antisemitic graffiti in the electorate, including on his billboards.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Neo-Nazi leader Davis has said the Liberals deserve to be “put last” on ballots and punished for backing recent state anti-vilification laws.
Speaking on a far-right podcast days after several neo-Nazis from the NSN disrupted Anzac Day dawn services with booing, Davis called for people to “sabotage” and “destroy” the Liberals in order for a new coalition of “further-right” parties to rise which are “more responsive to our concerns”.
That included, Davis claimed, micro parties such as Clive Palmer’s Trumpet of Patriots, which he joked were stealing NSN lines, as well as a Nazi party the NSN is planning to soon register with the Australian Electoral Commission to push its radical, white-supremacist agenda.
“They can’t stop us,” Davis said. “We actually think a lot of people will vote for us.”
A recent rally against the two major parties last weekend, organised by those with connections to neo-Nazi groups, only drew about a dozen people.
President of the Zionist Federation of Australia Jeremy Leibler said in a statement on Wednesday that Jewish people had the right to feel safe in their homes like any other Australian.
“Over the last 18 months, ridiculous and hateful conspiracy theories have been spread about Australian Jews. It’s dangerous, and it must be rejected by all Australians,” he said.
A Jewish Macnamara resident who received the leaflet and asked not to be named for safety reasons said she didn’t want to give attention to those responsible for the flyers but implored Australians to speak up against antisemitism.
“Some people hate and they just want to hate, but average Australians, imagine if you open your letterbox and it’s filled with a flyer that’s specifically targeting you,” she said.
“It’s not acceptable, and we shouldn’t have to accept it.”
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Nazi sympathisers were an embarrassment to Australia.
“This has become the ugliest election we’ve ever seen in terms of antisemitic attacks on candidates. Now, the Jewish community has to contend with Nazi filth dropped in the area with the highest concentration of Jewish residents in the state, including Holocaust survivors and many of their descendants … We trust the police will do their utmost to find those responsible.”
Labor MP for Macnamara Josh Burns has also been targeted by antisemitic graffiti this election, including billboards defaced overnight with Star of David graffiti.
“This graffiti is reminiscent of the worst times in my community’s history where this symbol has been misappropriated to isolate, harass, intimidate and mark Jewish people and their property,” the Jewish MP said in a post on social media. “But the Star of David is an ancient symbol, and Jewish people all over the world continue to wear it with pride … Politics should never be like this. The way we talk to each other and about our ideas matters.”
Liberal senator James Paterson called neo-Nazis who rallied outside his South Melbourne offices earlier this month “cosplaying losers” and has said the Liberal Party will not be intimidated by their stunts.
The Liberal Party has stepped up its rhetoric over election signage rules in Kooyong, accusing the City of Boroondara of political bias after council officers seized 14 Liberal A-frame signs from outside a Kew pre-polling station this morning.
In a statement, a Liberal spokesperson claimed the enforcement of the council’s one-sign-per-party rule is part of a politically motivated crackdown by what it described as a “Teal-run Council”.
“The Liberal Party believes the Teal-run Council’s requested ‘trading’ permit is unconstitutional and potentially unlawful. The Liberal Party is not ‘trading’ anything,” the statement read.
The party is now seeking a court injunction to block the rule, claiming the policy discriminates against political parties and limits free political communication.
“Four electorates can vote at the Kew early voting location – Kooyong, Melbourne, Chisholm, Menzies – however the Teal-run Council will only permit one candidate A-frame, hindering the Liberal candidates for the other three electorates, and for the Senate, from fairly participating in the democratic process,” the statement continued.
“It also prevents parties from enfranchising voters who may speak a language other than English.”
A council spokesperson dismissed the suggestion of political interference, noting that enforcement of local laws is handled by officers, not elected councillors.
Council officers confiscated 14 signs at the Kew pre-poll voting booth on Wednesday morning.Credit: Rachael Dexter
“Council’s focus is ensuring public safety, clear pedestrian access and amenity,” the spokesperson said. “Each candidate has been issued a permit to display one A-frame sign outside the pre-polling location to achieve these aims.”
The Liberal Party pointed to wording in the permit system that refers to “political parties”, suggesting it excludes independents like incumbent MP Monique Ryan. But the council clarified with me this was an administrative oversight and said the rule is intended to apply uniformly to all campaigns, whether independent or party-affiliated.
For what it’s worth, Ryan’s team has complied with the one-sign rule for the past two days.
The Liberal Party’s suggestion that the council is stacked with hostile political actors is based on the outcome of Boroondara’s 2024 council elections, where a wave of pro-environment candidates displaced many Liberal-aligned councillors. Only one declared Liberal – Felicity Sinfield – remains.
Among the new councillors are Rob Baillieu, son of former Liberal premier Ted Baillieu and a key volunteer in Ryan’s 2022 campaign, and current mayor Sophie Torney, who ran as a teal independent in the 2022 state election. Others include independents Victor Franco, Chris Pattas, Shima Ibuki and Greens councillors Wes Gault and John Friend-Pereira.
Boroondara’s signage rules pre-date the current council but were not enforced during the first week of pre-polling. The council says it acted only after receiving a flood of complaints about excessive signage outside the booth.
“Despite a final notice issued Tuesday, non-permitted advertising was again displayed in an unsafe manner,” the spokesperson said. “Council officers [on Wednesday morning] removed the advertising that posed a risk to the health and safety of pedestrians and road users.”
The Liberal Party may now be fined about $7000 – $500 per sign – under Boroondara’s bylaws, after 14 signs were seized. The council said the party can apply to reclaim the confiscated signs at any time.
The Liberals are also claiming double standards, pointing out multiple A-frames from different parties and campaigns on display at another Kooyong pre-polling site in Ashburton which haven’t been removed.
The pre-polling site at Ashburton, photographed on Wednesday, April 30.
Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson said: “It appears the Teal-run Boroondara Council have one rule for the Liberals, and another rule for everyone else.”
I asked Boroondara council about this site, and a spokesman said: “We’ve previously advised that we don’t proactively enforce signage, and [instead] respond to community complaints, which we had not received for this location.
“We act primarily to ensure public safety, and an officer will attend the Ashburton site and take appropriate action as required.
“We encourage all candidates to demonstrate community spirit and show a respect for public safety in the placement of their signs.”
Spend any time in the electorate of Goldstein and it’s hard to avoid the attack ads targeting teal independent MP Zoe Daniel.
There’s the giant billboard opposite the Kingston City Hall authorised by Australians for Prosperity, featuring a photo of Daniel’s head in a balloon.
“All hot air: Vote for change,” the ad states. “Blocked: Local voices. Disinterested: In local crime. Zero Delivery: On cost of living.”
At the pre-polling booths, flyers are being handed out with the headline: “Repeal the Teal”. They state: “Teals … Not open. Not accountable. Not independent. Not worth it. Put Zoe Daniel last.”
Earlier in the campaign I spotted trucks with mobile billboards from another lobby group, Better Australia, driving around the electorate and parked prominently, including outside the Jewish community forum organised by members of the Jewish community at the Brighton Hebrew Congregation.
Flyers distributed by Better Australia state: “Don’t trust the Teals this time!” They also criticise Daniel for signing a letter calling for Australia to reinstate funding for UNRWA in February 2024 and claim she has ignored warnings from Jewish and other communities about rising hate and antisemitism. UNRWA is the United Nations’ relief agency assisting Palestinians.
Better Australia has defended its members wearing yellow vests in Kooyong.
As my colleague Rachael Dexter has reported in Kooyong, Better Australia has also come under scrutiny for its members wearing yellow vests at the pre-polling booths which say “Community Advisor” and look very similar to the official vests worn by Australian Electoral Commission staff.
A spokesman for the Liberal Party said neither it nor Tim Wilson, the party’s candidate for Goldstein, have engaged Australians for Prosperity, Repeal the Teal or Better Australia.
I thought it was worthwhile taking a look at exactly who these groups are, and who is behind them.
You can get in touch about any ads you see in the electorate or information on the lobby groups behind them using the form below.
Who are Australians for Prosperity?
Australians for Prosperity is a lobby group headed by former Liberal MP Jason Falinski, a friend of Wilson, the Liberal candidate for Goldstein.
A Liberal Party spokesman described Falinski and Wilson’s relationship as that of “former parliamentary colleagues”. However, Falinksi told The Age they are “good friends”.
The pair came under scrutiny when, as MPs in 2019, they used a taxpayer-funded inquiry into Labor’s franking credits policy to raise funds for the Liberals.
Former federal MP Jason Falinski now heads Australians for Prosperity.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Letters to self-managed super fund trustees from Falinski, who was then part of parliament’s Standing Committee on Economics, using the inquiry to entice voters to donate to the Liberal Party in exchange for an audience with Wilson, who was then the committee chair.
Falinski and Wilson also wrote a joint column for the Australian Financial Review from 2022 to 2024. Both lost their seats at the 2022 election.
Falinski says he has contacted Wilson “from time to time” over the course of the election campaign just to check in on how he is going, but “we don’t talk tactics”. He says he is not co-ordinating the Australians for Prosperity campaign with Wilson, nor with the Liberal Party.
Before Falinski took over running Australians for Prosperity, Julian Simmons, the former Liberal MP for the Brisbane seat of Ryan, was the executive director of the group.
Simmonds was this month appointed acting chief executive of Economic Development Queensland by Queensland’s new Liberal National state government. He began in that position on April 22 and references to him have been removed from the Australians for Prosperity website.
Australians for Prosperity has received significant funding from the coal industry, and electoral records show it received $725,000 in donations from Coal Australia.
Falinski says Australians for Prosperity is not a lobby group for the coal industry and the majority of its funding comes from “ordinary Australians”, including some high net-worth individuals who made their money in manufacturing and farming, and a property heiress.
He says the teals’ links to Climate 200 should also be subject to scrutiny.
Who are Repeal the Teal?
Repeal the Teal is a lobby group founded by the Jewish activist network, J-United, which is affiliated with the right-wing lobby group Advance Australia. The campaign has been active in other teal-held electorates, including Kooyong.
The campaign is also busy on social media, as Advance Australia has spent $255,676 in the past 90 days in Victoria on advertising with Meta, the owner of Instagram and Facebook.
Repeal the Teal’s materials are authorised by Harriet Warlow-Shill, a Melbourne lawyer who hosted an online event in March called “Does my teal support terror? One woman’s journey to find out”.
Warlow-Shill says the Repeal the Teal campaign is not linked to the Liberal Party and she is no longer a Liberal Party member.
“I resigned from the party on 27 February, 2025 to ensure this is a stand-alone effort by myself and a few other ladies,” she says. “We have no prior experience running campaigns.”
A Repeal the Teal flyer.
Who are Better Australia?
Better Australia is incorporated in NSW and was formerly known as “Better NSW Incorporated” before changing its name in January.
It is a spin-off of Better Council, which targeted the Greens during last year’s local council elections in NSW, and has now turned its focus to teal-held seats including Goldstein.
A company search shows Sophie Calland is Better Australia’s public officer, and in an email, she says the group is an “independent non-partisan community initiative”.
A truck with Better Australia advertising.
“We believe a minority government comprising of Greens and teal ‘independents’ will be incredibly destructive for everyday Australians,” Callan says in the email.
“Former minority governments have led to stalling legislation and dramatic swings in government policy that do not align with what the public has voted for. It means whoever is in power must negotiate with extreme or elite voices that do not represent the public.”
Calland says Better Australia isn’t affiliated with any political party, although she is a member of the Labor Party.
“We are registered as a significant third-party entity for the upcoming 2025 federal election,” she says.
Calland says she has had no contact with Wilson during the campaign.
“But Better Australia’s local volunteers in Goldstein are doing everything they can to ensure that voters don’t get tricked by the teals in the election,” she says.
Better Australia also has an extensive online presence, having spent $66,010 in Victoria in the past 90 days on advertising with Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram.
Boroondara council officers have seized dozens of Liberal Party A-frame signs from a Kew pre-polling booth as a legal stoush between the municipality and the party over election signage in Kooyong looks set to head to court.
As we reported on Tuesday, the team behind Liberal Kooyong candidate Amelia Hamer was the only candidate group to refuse to adhere to a permit system with Boroondara council. The new rules restrict all candidates from displaying more than one A-frame sign on High Street in Kew outside the busy polling centre.
On Tuesday, the party thumbed their nose at the council’s directive (which came on Monday) and set up at least 50 signs while the Greens, Labor, Libertarian Party and independent Monique Ryan’s campaign teams stuck to the one-sign rule.
The Liberal Party then issued a legal threat to the council, claiming the permit system was unlawful and breached constitutional political freedom. The council’s by-laws include fines of $500 per sign per day.
On Wednesday morning, the Liberal Party wasn’t letting up and by 8am had set up dozens of signs again.
Boroondara council officers confiscating signs in Kew.Credit: Rachael Dexter
Three officers from Boroondara council hovered during the set-up, filming and taking notes.
Once the booth opened at 8.30am, they pounced, grabbing dozens of signs and piling them into a council car.
It’s not clear where the confiscated signs have gone. Liberal Party officials did not try to stop the seizure, which included signs for Hamer as well as Liberal candidates in nearby seats like Dr Katie Allen for Chisholm and Steph Hunt in the seat of Melbourne.
A council officer removing a Liberal Party sign on Wednesday morning.Credit: Rachael Dexter
They also took many of the party’s now-infamous “meme” signs which say, “Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!” (alluding to on an embarrassing incident where Ryan’s husband was caught on camera stealing a Hamer sign).
A Liberal Party spokesman told me at the booth that the party would be filing an injunction against the council today.
I’ve contacted Boroondara for comment on what happens next and will keep readers posted!
