Malvern heads to the polls with a new Liberal face

Malvern has elected only Liberals since 1945, and the party goes into the November 28 poll with an 8.1 per cent margin. But the member since 2006, former opposition leader Michael O’Brien, is retiring.

The seat takes in Armadale, Kooyong, Malvern, Malvern East and Toorak, along with parts of Chadstone and Glen Iris.

The Liberal candidate is Amelia Hamer, who lost the federal seat of Kooyong to independent Monique Ryan by less than 0.7 per cent in 2025.

Hamer did not respond to questions from The AJN before our deadline. During the 2025 campaign she told The AJN antisemitism demanded a federal government with “moral leadership”, the “right laws” and “enforcement of the laws”.

Labor, which ran second in 2022, has yet to nominate a candidate. One Nation’s Edward Bode also did not respond, and Victorian Socialists candidate Gavin Leonard declined to answer our questions. Georgia Katsikis is standing for the Greens.