Sausage breakfast? Lord mayor debate an all-bloke affair

It’s time for another edition of Ward Games, when The Age gets down and dirty on the front lines of Victoria’s upcoming council elections as campaigning really starts to heat up.

We were inundated with tips from readers after our first column, particularly on the corflute dramas unfolding right across Melbourne and the identity of Kingston’s sign thrower (we’re keeping a close eye on that one).

Don’t forget you can join in the fun by sending your pics, videos and tidbits to rachael.dexter@theage.com.au and tom.cowie@theage.com.au.

SAUSAGE BREAKFAST

Is business just for blokes?

That was the unintended message coming out of the lord mayoral breakfast chinwag hosted by the Committee for Melbourne and the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday.

As attendees chowed down on their fruit salad, pastries and breakfast burgers, some were left wondering about the complete absence of any women on stage.

Of the 11 candidates running for Melbourne’s top job, six took part in the debate: Nick Reece, Aaron Wood, Jamal Hakim, Gary Morgan, Phil Reed and Anthony Koutoufides. (We hear Kouta and Reed wrangled their way in after not getting an original invite.)

Those not asked to attend included the Liberals’ Mariam Riza, Roxane Ingleton for the Greens and Eylem Kim from the Animal Justice Party. Coincidentally, all of them female.

When asked about this dire gender split, the chamber’s head honcho, Paul Guerra, explained that invites were doled out to candidates who had “proactively engaged with us”.

“The business vote is fundamental to the outcome for lord mayor and we will continue to push the business agenda,” he said.

(He’s not wrong, never forget in our grand democratic city businesses get two votes while residents get just one).

The Greens and Animal Justice Party may not be big fans of business, sure. But the Liberal Party? Team Riza was not impressed.

“We are disappointed not to have been invited,” she said, calling the decision an “unfortunate oversight”.

If Riza had been at the event, she could have told the audience about her policy for a 5 per cent cashback on rates for businesses that bring their workers back to the office.

Sounds like something the VCCI would approve of.

THROWING STONES

A remarkable pamphlet battle is playing out in Melbourne’s east, where a long-standing war between two City of Stonnington rivals and their Facebook admin backers has reached new highs. Or should we say, lows.

The “shit sheet” action is going down in Chadstone and East Malvern, where there are only two contenders: long-time foes Joe Gianfriddo, the incumbent mayor, and fellow sitting councillor Jami Klisaris.

Making matters messy, Gianfriddo’s husband is ratepayer activist Dean Hurlston, who runs the Council Watch website and Facebook page, which unsurprisingly offers staunch support for the mayor.

Meanwhile, Hurlston’s watchdog nemesis, Brendan Corr, who runs the separate Stonnington Community Noticeboard group on Facebook, is backing Klisaris in Malvern Valley ward.

Corr has ramped up his advocacy IRL, dropping 5000 pamphlets into local letterboxes slagging off Gianfriddo in rather strong terms – along with a drive-by on Hurlston.

The “SAY NO TO JOE” flyers, authorised by Corr, set out a long list of allegations about Gianfriddo, which we will be not be repeating for legal reasons.

But the pamphleteering hasn’t stopped there. Gianfriddo has hit back, defending his reputation against Corr’s “defamatory” document in flyers of his own.

“This letter contains offensive and unsubstantiated claims against me,” the letter says.

We’re told Gianfriddo has printed 6000 response flyers, upping Corr by 1000 – politics is a numbers game, after all.

Mayor Joe told The Age that Corr has been on his case for more than a year.

“I have been subjected to personal attacks on a repeated basis from him,” he told The Age. “For me to have to walk around to letterbox to defend my good name, it’s outrageous.”

In response, Corr said: “I would not put myself at financial risk if I thought anything was defamatory.”

Meanwhile, so-called report cards have also landed in Stonnington letterboxes grading various councillors with an “F” for their performance over the last term.

The cards, one of which replaces the Greens logo with “the Grubs”, have been authorised by “K Norling” and “C Davy”. Anyone who knows who they are can get in touch.

BALLOT STUFF-UP

Whoops! Ballots went out in the mail this week and our spies tell us that some voters have received the wrong information from the Victorian Electoral Commission.

Port Phillip Council and Wellington Shire are more than 200 kilometres apart, but some St Kilda residents opened their VEC envelopes to find ballot papers listing candidates in Gippsland.

The VEC assures us that this was just a minor snafu.

“We are sorry that this error has occurred and we thank our community for letting us know,” a spokesperson said.