2 days Ago By Cara Waters, Rachael Dexter, Tom Cowie, Charlotte Grieve
After trying for days to secure details of the campaign launch of Bruce’s Liberal candidate Zahid Safi, I arrived at the event at Narre Warren North Public Hall on Sunday around 3.45pm. It had been impossible to get any information about Safi’s whereabouts from official sources, but I managed to find out the launch location.
Liberal supporters - and pizza - arriving for Bruce candidate Zahid Safi’s campaign launch on Sunday evening. Credit: Charlotte Grieve It was cold and windy upon arrival, but I was told to “stand back” and wait outside until someone called “Andrew” came to see me. I waited and waited, but no one came.
When I tried to introduce myself as a journalist to volunteers, they refused to engage. “I know who you are,” said one before walking away. As close as The Age got to entering Safi’s campaign launch on Sunday.
Credit: Charlotte Grieve The Australian Federal Police had been asked to attend for the protection of Liberal MP Jason Wood after he and Safi were heckled at a Doveton mosque last Monday. Even one officer said it was an unusual approach to block journalists from entering a launch event. “I would’ve thought if there’s no one to cover it, it didn’t happen,” the officer said, with a smile.
Young Liberals wearing blue T-shirts brought boxes of pizza through the entrance. The smell of coffee wafted from the quiet suburban hall. Men wearing suits and traditional clothes trickled in.
Some smoked cigarettes in the carpark. Wood eventually arrived at 4.15pm, and rushed into the safety of the hall without stopping for a chat.
By that point, it was raining heavily. The volunteer who had told me to wait outside returned to say the AFP wanted me to leave. I explained they had given me different information and I was here to meet the candidate.
“This is my event, and I’m telling you to leave,” the female volunteer said. “You need to leave.” We only caught the back of Liberal MP Jason Wood, as he was whisked into the Bruce launch.
Credit: Charlotte Grieve Afterwards, I called Liberal HQ for an explanation. I was told there was no directive to ban media attending the event from higher up, and was given an apology. They would look into it, I was told.
We got a peak inside after the event, when the Menzies Young Liberals uploaded happy snaps from inside the vault later in the night, tagging Liberal Senate candidate for Victoria Kyle Hoppitt who was also in attendance. Safi, who has never held public office before, needs a significant swing against Labor which holds the seat by more than 5 per cent, to have a chance at entering parliament. I’m still waiting for a response to emails and phone calls.
Let’s hope Safi’s campaign changes its approach, or it’s going to be a long four weeks until the May 3 poll date. Eye of the Tiger blasted out of the speakers at a packed Kingston Town Hall as independent teal MP Zoe Daniel took the stage on Sunday night for her campaign launch. More than 1,000 of Daniel’s supporters turned out for the launch, which at times, had the atmosphere of a music festival rather than a political event.
Supporters cheered for Zoe Daniel at her campaign launch. Credit: LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI Many attendees were dressed in teal T-shirts, which were for sale for $20 each at the entrance and held signs saying: “Independence fights. Independence acts.
Independence works”. The merch stand, which was doing brisk trade, also had hoodies for $60, hats for $20, and teal coloured Zoe Daniel statement earrings for $25. MC for the night, comedian Dan Ilic, got the most laughs when he joked that his most recent acting gig had been playing “a tradie struggling with fringe benefits tax” in a dig at Liberal opponent Tim Wilson using campaign volunteers in high vis vests and hard hats in a Facebook ad.
Ilic also had a go at Opposition leader Peter Dutton for accidentally hitting a cameraman with a football . “For someone who wants to get Australia back on track, he can barely kick a ball straight,” he quipped. After a Welcome to Country and some songs, Daniel was introduced by two “Gen Zoe” volunteers, a group of Daniel’s volunteers all under the age of 35.
She took to the stage wearing a suffragette white blazer and jeans while her children and husband sat in the front row. “What you did at the ballot box in 2022 by electing me shook the foundation of Australian politics,” Daniel said. “Your bravery in electing me as an independent community MP was unheard of in Goldstein.
I have never taken for granted the enormous trust you placed in me.” Daniel didn’t bother with an origin story, instead, she laid out her achievements in the last parliamentary term and the key policies she is focused on. She pointed to achievements including a legislative climate emissions reduction target, a national anti-corruption commission, having early childhood education as a declared government priority, an in-home program for eating disorders, and more bulk billing GP clinics in Goldstein.
Outlining the policies she is focused on, the biggest cheers were reserved for her policies on income tax and calls for a cohesive climate policy. “The days of income taxpayers carrying the load while multinationals and big corporations dodge their fair share are over,” Daniel told the crowd. “What sort of country do you want to live in?” Zoe Daniel asked the audience at her campaign launch on Sunday.
Credit: LUIS ENRIQUE ASCUI Daniel called out the “relentless reflexive negativity and Trumpian mind of Peter Dutton” and the “unimaginative unambitious timidity of Anthony Albanese”. “What sort of country do you want to live in?” she asked. “I’d say it is one that values integrity, honesty and transparency, one that values science and evidence-based policies, one that values women and everyone’s contribution, one that values proper debate and collaboration, one that values prosperity for all, and one that puts the future of our young people at the centre of everything.
” Each sentence was met with a round of applause, and then, while posing for a selfie with her family on stage, the crowd erupted into chants of “Zoe, Zoe, Zoe”. While Dutton and Albanese spent the weekend criss-crossing the country, Julian Hill spent it criss-crossing Bruce. It was a jam-packed Saturday for the Labor candidate and MP, who started with an Easter Egg hunt in Dandenong, then whizzed to a Sri Lankan community event before we met up in Hampton Park for some community football.
Labor’s Julian Hill with the Doveton Football Club on Saturday. Credit: Charlotte Grieve It was Doves versus Redbacks, and a loyal Doves supporter – Hill dodged a photo with the winning team, the Redbacks from Hampton Park, which just happens to be outside of his electorate. “I’m Doveton all the way!” Also in tow was Casey mayor Stefan Koomen, who was in a precarious position as his council area spans both teams.
“I’m considering getting a scarf of both teams knitted together,” he said, smiling but serious. Hill spoke with locals about AFL history, and caught up with Doveton Soccer Club president Daniel McMinimee – whose club benefited recently from around $200,000 in federal funding to upgrade facilities. “First time we’ve had lights on our ground since it’s been built,” he said.
“I’m a fan of Julian’s.” Hill with Dusty the puppy Ridgeback. Credit: Charlotte Grieve Hill says political comments don’t go down well on weekends, but he makes one “evidence-based” exception: “Basically for 10 years, the whole city of greater Dandenong got literally nothing from the feds, literally nothing, because every grants program was pork-barrelled and rorted.
” Hill points to $7.5 million given to Doveton pool by the current government , which was allocated after he encouraged the community to make a grant application with a business case. “I haven’t delivered everything the community wants, but I can say we’ve delivered programs, everything according to need.
” After a quick pat with Dusty the puppy Ridgeback, and pop into the changerooms for a photo with the Doveton players, he’s back on the road. Bruce voter Bahanita Danish plans to vote for the Liberal candidate Zahid Safi. Credit: Charlotte Grieve Next stop is a 10-minute drive away.
The stubbie-holders and sausages are replaced with charcoaled meats and hennaed hands at the Narwoz festival, also known as the Afghan new year, held in a Hallam park. Hill was asked to make a speech at the last minute so took a seat and started tapping away at his phone. Politicians of all persuasions sat in the front row, including Victorian Liberal MP Ann-Marie Hermans, state Labor MP Lee Tarlamis and Greens candidate for Bruce, Rhonda Garad.
“It must be election year, with all the politicians here,” the MC told the crowd. In his speech, Hill said Narwoz was an ancient celebration and time for renewal. “Narwoz Mubarak everyone!” he said.
“Eid Mubarak to our Muslim brothers and sisters!” Hill praised Australia’s democracy and said the upcoming federal election was a reminder of “how lucky we are to live in a democracy where we do have the great privilege to vote and choose our governments”. “The majority of people in the world do not,” he said. “I get asked this in my role – what’s an Australian? An Australian, to me, is anyone committed to our country and to the principle of mutual respect for their fellow Australians.
“When you come to this country, no one expects you to leave your culture at the door. Quite the opposite. Australia encourages people to celebrate their culture, to cherish the traditions and pass them onto their kids.
” “While we can celebrate our freedom, spare a thought for the people in Afghanistan right now where Narwoz is banned. And the women and girls who are not even allowed to show their faces or be seen in society.” Bruce is home to Victoria’s largest Afghan community, and will be an influential voter base this election.
Afghan-born Liberal candidate Zahid Safi could not be seen at the event. Victorian Liberal Opposition Leader Brad Battin was the party’s representative on the speaker list. “Julian, we keep meeting at events.
It’s good to see you here again. It’s great to be out with you,” Battin told the crowd, before praising the event and community. “We get to have events like this, where people from all colours of our persuasion in our democracy come here together.
” Sitting next to me in the crowd was Pashto-teacher Bahanita Danish. She said Safi might be nervous to attend after being heckled earlier in the week at the Doveton mosque. Danish will be voting for Safi this election, she said, after he visited her school in recent months.
“He’s very kind,” she said. “I think change is coming.” Elsewhere in the crowd, a young man named Ahmed Ahmedi said “for now” he will vote Labor over what he said was a better record on immigration.
“Because it’s good for people from overseas,” he said. “Good for immigration.” But he said he had to learn more, as there was a bad “court decision” that he heard about, but could not elaborate further.
Labor’s response to the High Court ruling that found indefinite detention was illegal, including fewer rights for detainees and tougher deportation laws, has been criticised by human rights groups as draconian. Saturday on the hustings wouldn’t be complete without a baby’s head being kissed. Hill was chatting to a young mother on the sidelines of the cultural event, who excitedly passed her baby to the politician for a cuddle.
“I love babies,” he said, to smiles all around. “She’s so cute.” We are in week two of the federal election campaign, with 26 days to go until the May 3 poll.
Today Anthony Albanese starts the day in Melbourne and Peter Dutton is in Adelaide. While much focus is on the leaders, locally we have senior reporters on the ground in key Victorian electorates - including Kooyong, Goldstein, Wills and Bruce - which while promising interesting contests could also influence the final national result. Welcome to The Age’s Victorian hot seats blog.
It’s been a ‘cat and mouse’ start of sorts to the campaign: some candidates, while putting their hand up to run for Parliament, have proven elusive and not so keen to answer journalists or voters’ questions. In Kooyong in week one, the corflutes drama - which began in the days before the election was called with independent MP Monqique Ryan’s husband caught removing a campaign sign of Liberal candidates Amelia Hamer from a Camberwell nature strip - made headlines again. New corflutes - zip-tied as addendums to Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer’s usual sights - starting popping up in the electorate last week.
They read: “Monique, please DO NOT take this sign!” However, when other Goldstein candidates appeared at a candidates forum, organised by local climate action group Lighter Footprints, on Wednesday night, Hamer was nowhere to be seen . The 31-year-old grand-niece of former Victorian premier Sir Rupert Hamer instead opted to participate in a tele-town hall - essentially a mass phone call to Kooyong residents, answering pre-screened questions alongside shadow treasurer Angus Taylor. Today Hamer, who has pitched herself as a young renter to voters, begins the week having to explain her home ownership .
As Rachael Dexter revealed this morning, while Hamer currently rents in Hawthorn she also owns two investment properties. In Goldstein, independent MP Zoe Daniel and Liberal challenger Tim Wilson shared a stage at the Brighton Hebrew Congregation for a Jewish community forum on Thursday night. They were grilled on the Israel-Palestine conflict and were asked “are you a Zionist?“.
Earlier that day, the spotlight was on Wilson’s campaign material - with the former MP posing with a member of his campaign team dressed as a tradie in a high vis vest and hard hat for a Facebook ad. In Wills, voters found Australian Christian Lobby pamphlets among campaign material in their letterboxes. The pamphlets attacked the Greens - which is fielding high-profile candidate Samantha Ratnam this election - over the party’s gender policy.
Labor MP Peter Khalil had his first photo opportunity with Albanese in town on Thursday spruiking the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) at a pharmacy - that sells coffee. That’s Melbourne. Liberal candidate for Bruce Zahid Safi’s foray into the campaign last Monday was a little bruising.
The Afghan-born father-of-six and La Trobe MP Jason Wood turned up to the Omar-Farooq Mosque in Doveton on Monday promising big money during Eid prayers. However, they were heckled and booed by some worshippers, sick of having religious ceremonies taken over by politicians. But signs of John Howard in the electorate and lunching with Liberal members from Bruce is a sign the seat held by Labor’s Julian Hill is in their sights.
Now if only we could track Safi down for an interview. That was last week - now back to our reporters on the ground for week 2. City reporter Tom Cowie joins the blog this week, covering the seat of Wills, while Clay Lucas is on a week’s leave for school holidays.
To follow the national campaign, read our live federal election blog . To explore how close the contest is in your neighbourhood, search our interactive electorate map . And read on here about other battleground contests in Victoria .
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