Follow our rolling in-depth coverage of key Victorian seats in this federal election campaign.
Follow our rolling in-depth coverage of key Victorian seats in this federal election campaign.
Easter Sunday looked a little different at the Dandenong showgrounds this weekend.
Children rode camels, and adults raised money to build a new mosque in Narre Warren South as smoke from the charcoal barbeque filled the air.
Parked at the entrance was a truck with a banner by lobby group Muslim Votes Matters (MVM) with a red cross across Labor member Julian Hill’s face next to an Israeli flag.
“Julian Hill went on a Zionist lobby trip,” the sign reads. “Don’t let him take your vote for granted any longer.”
Inside the same hall that Liberal candidate Zahid Safi and Liberal member Jason Wood were heckled during Eid prayers just a few weeks ago, MVM volunteers were handing out flyers, including how to vote cards placing Greens first, Labor second and Liberals fifth.
MVM spokesman Mohamed Yousef said the group’s opposition to Labor in Bruce ws driven by criticism of the party as a whole, rather than Hill specifically.
“He is part of a government, he’s part of a caucus who has collectively refused to take concrete actions to punish Israel to take more standing against the genocide,” he said.
“The separation between the individual and the party does not happen when they choose collective responsibility, and there is a collective response to that responsibility.”
Yousef points to Labor’s failure to impose sanctions on Israel, and what he described as the party’s “extremely underwhelming” response to rising Islamophobia in Australia.
In response, Hill confirmed he went on an Israel lobby funded trip in 2017, but subsequently took another trip organised by the Australian Palestinian Advocacy Network, where he spent “equal time in both Israel and Palestine”.
“After visiting Israel, I became an informed and outspoken critic of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank and an advocate for two secure states which remains my position,” Hill said.
“It’s a bit offensive to stereotype our diverse Australian Muslim community by suggesting they would all vote the same way based on one issue.”
Hill described the MVM campaign against him as “profoundly misleading and rather silly” and pointed to his support from high-profile Palestine advocate Nasser Mashni.
Mashni described Hill as “one of the most courageous and consistent voices for Palestine within the Labor Party” in a text message to The Age.
Yousef said politicians should not go on these trips at all, claiming they influence politicians in different ways
Muslim voters were sick of being used for photo opportunities and then ignored, he said.
“It doesn’t excuse it,” he said of Hill’s Palestine trip.
Ruksana Siddiqui has been volunteering for MVM and has door-knocked in Bruce this week. She said the level of political literacy across the electorate is low, as many people she has spoken to “don’t know anything about these parties”.
“One of them said I’ll go for Greens because they said they will wipe out student loans,” she says.
MVM has endorsed Greens candidate Rhonda Garad, but Siddiqui said there was pushback within some parts of the Muslim community due to the minor party’s support for LGBT rights and opposition of taxpayer funds for religious schools.
“But I keep saying she is willing to stand for my voice and that’s all I care for at this stage.”
When asked if she thought Gaza was driving votes in Bruce, Siddiqui said “yes and no”, adding that some Muslim voters might vote for Safi because of his name.
“Until now, not many Muslims are actively involved in knowing this whole thing. Is that education there? I just don’t know.”
A stall owner, who did not provide his name, said the “game is changing a little bit” from when many in the Muslim community voted Labor by default. He said he “wouldn’t have a clue” yet who he would vote for this election, but he’s going to do his research.
“In the past, elders say just vote Labor. That’s what you hear. But in Islam, it says do not follow the line, do your own research, don’t just follow the next person. Don’t follow the imam either, do your own research, make sure you’re doing your due diligence on what path you know is right and what needs to be done,” he said.
In the crowd, sitting around plastic tables and chairs with his family was Amer Khalil, who works as a tiler. He said work had been “very dead” all year, and the economy is the issue he’s most focused on this election.
“Rent keeps going up,” he said. “Fuel is going up always. It makes it very hard to find jobs. People are having issues with getting loans from the bank. It’s very, very hard to keep up with everything paying bills.”
Sitting next to him was his mother, who flew from Lebanon four months ago to stay safe during the war. His mother, who cannot speak English and wears a black headscarf and patterned dress, cannot watch the news as it makes her feel sick, Khalil said.
“She hurts from seeing what’s happening there. She doesn’t like to watch. It’s really very bad. You see missiles come down, civilian people get burnt, they don’t allow people to come and save them. It’s really terrible that we’re in 2025 and we still see this criminal work. It’s hard.”
Khalil said “I really don’t know” about the differences between Labor on Liberal on Gaza, but it would drive his vote if a party was one-sided.
“I don’t think there is any fair action from our government or the whole world,” he said. “No one is doing anything to stop this war killing civilian people. How can this happen in 2025?”
In Kooyong, even the Easter campaign truce couldn’t slow the pace of news – and over the weekend, it took a dark turn.
While I took a couple of days to catch my breath, my colleague Grant McArthur broke the story of a Kooyong-based neurosurgeon who filmed himself destroying Monique Ryan’s corflutes while joking that he was “burying a body.”
What may have been intended as a private joke for friends quickly spread out of a group chat and across the internet – and landed with a thud.
The video was widely condemned by MPs including Ryan, the independent incumbent, her Liberal opponent Amelia Hamer, and domestic violence campaigners.
Grant broke the story on Friday. By Saturday, Professor Greg Malham had self-reported to the medical regulator, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, and was under investigation by Epworth Hospital, where he works contractually.
“I will be taking leave while that investigation is happening and have self-reported to the medical regulator, AHPRA,” he said.
“I will be fully accountable for my actions. I sincerely and unreservedly apologise for this lapse in judgment that does not reflect my core values and beliefs.”
We’re now less than a fortnight from polling day, with pre-polling starting on Tuesday.
Let’s hope the tone improves and civility holds.
I’ll be at pre-polling booths this week and attending three (!) candidate forums in Kooyong, on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night. As always – if you have a tip, get in touch.
Welcome back to our live Hot Seats blog, where we’ll be back covering all the news and bringing you local insights on key contests in the federal election.
It will be a big week with early voting for the May 3 poll due to begin on Tuesday.
We hope you enjoy it.