Lupton hopes for Prahran redux

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Former Victorian state MP Tony Lupton, a staunch critic of the federal government’s policies on Israel and its handling of antisemitism, is returning to the fray in his old stomping ground, the state seat of Prahran – but in the February 8 by-election the erstwhile Labor MP will be running as an independent.

Lupton served in the Steve Bracks government as the Member for Prahran from 2002, when he defeated sitting Liberal Leonie Burke. He won a second term four years later against Liberal challenger Clem Newton-Brown, but was defeated by Newton-Brown in 2010, in the election that brought the Liberals back to government.

Lupton, whose partner and children are Jewish, has stated that Labor’s recent policies have “facilitated the rise in antisemitism”.

The by-election was brought on by the resignation of Greens MP Sam Hibbins in November. Hibbins, a married father of two, breached party rules in his relationship with a staffer. He has since relinquished his Greens membership and sits on the crossbench.

Labor will not be fielding a candidate and the Liberals have picked Rachel Westaway to represent them.

“I’m running because we are at a critical juncture,” Lupton told The AJN. “At the moment the extremists are running the show and I couldn’t stomach the prospect of handing the seat back to the Greens without a fight.

“I’ve represented Prahran before in the State Parliament, as the Labor member during the Bracks and Brumby governments. I know how government works. Now I want to represent my community again, this time as our local independent voice. Still with those traditional Labor values of equal opportunity and dignity, but with the independence to take on any issue and make government work for us.”

Working for most of the last decade on a statutory tribunal, Lupton, whose partner is journalist and author Julie Szego, has been forthright about Labor’s record on Israel and the Jewish community.

At his campaign launch, Lupton said, “Social division is worse than it has been in people’s memories. [The] shocking firebombing of a local synagogue has come on top of Jewish businesses being blockaded and boycotted, schools vandalised, open displays of support for terror organisations and people being harassed and intimidated.”

In an opinion piece in The Australian, he stated. “My faith in Labor was battered when the government’s response effectively abandoned the Jewish community, which is small in number, unlike the larger Muslim community that is heavily concentrated in Labor seats.”