Crime worries voters in Prahran as volunteers squabble​on February 8, 2025 at 9:50 am

Greens candidate Angelica Di Camillo said voters in Prahran were “really struggling, they are doing it tough”, but insisted Saturday’s byelection was not a referendum on federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton or Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

“We need to make sure our community feels safe in their neighbourhoods,” she said.

Hibbins’ affair soured South Yarra’s Inna Wilson on the minor party. “The Greens – they have let us down. I didn’t want to give them a preference,” she said.

“You expect better from them. They are supposed to be the champion for good things, I kind of felt they were as bad as the others.”

Outside the polling booth at South Yarra Library, Greens MP for Richmond Gabrielle de Vietri said she believed many people thought the Greens had taken the right action in expelling Hibbins from the party room. He later resigned from parliament.

“Absolutely, it’s disagreeable behaviour. It’s unacceptable – that’s why we took decisive action to suspend and reject him from the party room,” she said. “[Voters] understand the position we were put in, and no one is perfect. We’ve preselected a strong, intelligent woman.”

With Labor choosing not to run a candidate, De Vietri said it was “clear that Labor doesn’t want this litmus test on their government now”.

Liberal candidate for Prahran Rachel Westaway said there was a “real feeling of change” in the air after six weeks of campaigning, and that the Greens had failed to deliver.

“We need some immediate corrections to the Bail Act … but we also need to work with the people who are doing it tough, the people with mental health issues.”

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On polling booths, tensions were high among volunteers in Prahran, with some alleging “horrible” behaviour between volunteers of opposing parties.

Independent candidate Janine Hendry said she had witnessed “really, really toxic behaviour”. She says she witnessed the Advance Australia group moving signs or standing in front of them to block them from passersby. “I’m really worried about the state of democracy,” she said.

Hendry said she would be lodging a formal complaint with the Victorian Electoral Commission.

The Age spoke with multiple Greens volunteers, who asked not to be named for safety fears, who alleged Advance volunteers had hurled abuse at them. Greens volunteer Declan Kerger has lodged a complaint with the VEC after he claims he was shoved by an Advance volunteer on Friday.

In a statement, Advance said it was a community group and said the statements were untrue, and alleged in return “disgusting behaviour” from Greens volunteers. “The only appalling behaviour we have seen at prepoll is from Greens volunteers. Let’s not forget that the only reason there is a byelection at all is because of the Greens and their conduct towards women.”

Independent Tony Lupton, a former Labor politician, said he was focused on the rental crisis, cost of living and crime and was preferencing the Liberals. “I resigned from the [Labor] party because I think they needed stronger leadership on antisemitism and social disorder,” he said.

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He said he was shocked that one of his volunteers told him a voter had said they wouldn’t vote for him because his wife was Jewish. “We wouldn’t imagine that sort of thing would have happened a couple of years ago,” he said.

But voters like Tiphat Banjongpru, 49, Southbank, didn’t actually know much about the candidates; he was focused on the cost of living. “If you can reduce the cost of living like groceries, it could help us live,” he said.

St Kilda resident Valery Shakhbazyam, 71, agreed: “Groceries are very expensive. Crime is an issue. Too many drugs. Very dodgy sometimes.”

With Liam Mannix

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