Pre-selecting the Oxford-educated grandniece of former Victorian premier Sir Rupert “Dick” Hamer is hardly a radical course shift for a political party struggling to be relevant to Melbourne’s well-heeled professional class.

Yet 30-year-old financier Amelia Hamer is precisely the kind of candidate many in the Liberal Party believe can refresh the brand and woo voters in former treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s once blue-ribbon seat of Kooyong.