Page 13: Top silk Julian Burnside turns from Greens to blue in Kooyong fog of war

Eagle-eyed observers in well-heeled Hawthorn have noticed an election billboard on the sprawling mansion of famed human rights barrister Julian Burnside KC. Are the Greens on the chopping block?

A huge billboard of Ryan is slapped on the corner of the Towel Hotel in Hawthorn. Picture: Supplied

The end justifies the means seems to be the motto of famed human rights barrister Julian Burnside KC.

The Greens Party candidate for Kooyong in 2019, it’s now the Greens who seem to be on Burnside’s chopping block.

Over the weekend, eagle-eyed observers in well-heeled Hawthorn noticed an election billboard on the sprawling mansion that is the centrepiece of the top silk’s reported $20m property portfolio.

Was this for Greens Party candidate Jackie Carter, we hear you ask.

No, it’s none other than incumbent teal MP Monique Ryan.

Not that this will help Ryan distance herself from claims the teals are really Greens pretending to be blue.

Julian Burnside was The Greens candidate for Kooyong in 2019. Picture: AAP

Another huge billboard of Ryan was slapped on the corner of the Towel Hotel in Hawthorn. This time by the Liberals, highlighting the teal MPs voting history with the Greens.

A Liberal Party spokesman said Ryan voted “most often with the Greens” despite only six per cent of the electorate voting Greens at the last election.

Independent analysis of Ms Ryan’s votes between 2022 and 2025, conducted by the Parliamentary Library, found she voted with the Greens, 77 per cent of the time, followed by Labor, 44 per cent, then the Liberals, 31 per cent.

A Monique Ryan billboard at the home of Julian Burnside in Hawthorn. Picture: Supplied

“When the bells ring and an MP goes into the chamber to vote, they have to choose which side of the chamber they sit on,” a spokesman said.

“Seventy seven per cent of the time Monique Ryan chose to sit with the Greens.

“Why is Monique Ryan so embarrassed about her factual voting record?”

Ryan quickly hit back, saying Opposition Leader Peter Dutton should take a look at his own voting record and deploying her teal army to protest in front of the billboard.

Lindsay Fox’s billboard for Amelia Hamer

“In this parliament, Peter Dutton has missed 316 votes. He failed to show up for nearly 60 per cent of the votes in the 47th parliament. I’ve been there for 92 per cent. And yet he criticises those of us who actually turn up and do the job we were elected to do.”

This latest spat comes just days after Ryan was accused of “shouting at children” in a spat with teenage Liberal volunteers who were handing out flyers for Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer during a heated argument near the fruit shop at Hawksburn Village last Saturday.

Ryan claimed the young volunteers were “physically aggressive” towards her.

The teal independent holds the former blue-ribbon Liberal seat held by former treasurer Josh Frydenberg by a slim margin.

The fog of war in Kooyong has already seen the more even-handed Lindsay Fox turning to the Liberals and the Greens’ Julian Burnside to the teals, so we can’t wait for the next millionaire to emerge from the trenches.

Originally published as Page 13: Top silk Julian Burnside turns from Greens to blue in Kooyong fog of war