Inside the key seat with one big thing missing

Both major parties are campaigning hard for a key seat in parliament, but there is one big thing missing from the contest.

Both major party candidates for one Melbourne area live outside the electorate they’re hoping to represent, it has been revealed.

Liberal Robbie Beaton and Labor’s Mark Dreyfus do not reside in, or even near, the constituency of Isaacs which takes in much of the lower bayside region.

Suburbs including Moorabbin, Mordialloc, Carrum and Dandenong South are included between its borders but the would-be representatives live a fair distance away.

Carrum is one of the areas within Isaacs electorate. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Mr Beaton lives in leafy Camberwell while Mr Dreyfus lives in Malvern.

Melbourne talkback host Tom Elliott took aim at the pair on his 3AW radio show, saying Isaacs locals were being “ripped off” by the arrangement.

“I could not be more against this,” Elliott said.

“They both want the right to represent you in federal parliament if you live in Isaacs but they themselves don’t live there.”

While controversial it’s not uncommon for political representatives to live away from those they’re supposed to represent.

Shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus is hoping to get re-elected. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

A 2017 report found 20 of the Victorian state government’s 72 MPs — including six ministers — didn’t live in their own electorates.

Among those named were Eddie McGuire’s brother Frank who lives in Fitzroy despite representing Broadmeadows and frontbencher and Mill Park MP Lily D’Ambrosio, who lives in Brunswick.