Teals announce Melissa Lowe as candidate for Hawthorn

Few foresaw the savage 9 per cent swing in Hawthorn that turfed out Liberal Party MP John Pesutto at the 2018 state election, replacing him with Labor’s 74-year-old John Kennedy, who lives in a retirement village near Glenferrie Oval.

But seismic political results are becoming the norm for this part of Melbourne. Hawthorn sits entirely within the federal seat of Kooyong where, in May, independent Monique Ryan defeated the nation’s treasurer, Josh Frydenberg.

Now, Melissa Lowe hopes it is her turn to pull off another surprise. On Thursday, Lowe will be announced as the “teal” candidate for Hawthorn in November’s state poll.

The 52-year-old works at Swinburne University, as manager of student equity, and volunteered for a time on Ryan’s campaign. On Wednesday, Lowe was in Ryan’s former campaign office, an old Westpac bank on Glenferrie Road, preparing for Thursday night’s announcement event.

For her first media photo, Lowe was in pink, not the teal that will be her campaign colour. “I haven’t had a chance to do much shopping,” she said. “I’m working full-time and the only teal thing I have is a Mon [Monique Ryan] T-shirt. And some furnishings at home.”

Lowe hopes to campaign on big-picture issues including climate change and the environment – which could play well in a seat with a median age of 33 – along with bread-and-butter state issues. “Health, obviously mental health, integrity,” she nominated as other key topics.

Lowe believes the electorate wants someone to vote for beyond the Labor and Liberal parties. “They see that the two [major] parties don’t necessarily work with them [or] listen to them,” she said. “Josh [Frydenberg] found that out big time.”

Once the jewel in the Liberal Party crown, Hawthorn was held by the party’s last premier, Ted Baillieu, from 1999 to 2014. “There are a lot more apartments and a lot more high-density living [now],” said Lowe. “And a lot of young people live in that high density.”

Political strategist Kos Samaras, who is doing some work with Lowe’s team, as he did with Monique Ryan, said: “Hawthorn is now like the state seat of Richmond. It’s not the seat that Ted Baillieu won when he first entered parliament.”

Lowe was once a Labor member, “back in the ’90s for about five years”, and also briefly a trade union organiser. She has two of her own children, four stepchildren and two grandchildren. She grew up in East Malvern and Eltham, and lives in Balwyn, just outside Hawthorn’s northern boundary.

Pesutto is running again, despite his 2018 drubbing. The 52-year-old said he had built an energetic community campaign, “with over 500 volunteers”. He said he was personally calling 100 locals a day, in addition to other campaign activities.

Pesutto said locals were most concerned about health, ambulances, Victoria’s economy and the rising cost of living. He said even many teal voters were “responding warmly to, and getting involved in, my campaign”.

When Labor took the seat off Pesutto in 2018, it was the first time it had won Hawthorn in 66 years. Hawthorn MP John Kennedy said that four years on, Labor had secured investment for schools, sports clubs, public housing and public transport infrastructure.

He said these issues, and others that constituents had raised with him including climate change, the cost of living, health and education, were “all areas where this government is delivering for Victorians”.

Meanwhile, in the marginal bayside seat of Brighton, Felicity Frederico has been confirmed as the teal independent candidate.

The former Bayside mayor, who unsuccessfully contested Liberal preselection in Sandringham and Brighton, has previously complained about bullying in the Liberal Party, which she quit in May. “The party I left was not the party I joined,” she said.

Liberal Party figures have registered the domain name felicityfrederico.com.au, which Frederico called “creepy”. Going to that web address diverts to sitting Liberal MP, James Newbury.