Victoria’s hot seats week three as it happened: Adam Bandt DJs like nobody is watching (but everyone is); How much will Gaza conflict matter in Wills?

Just when we thought Hot Seats had wrapped for the week, here’s a bonus Easter egg for our devoted readers.

Good Friday party people at legendary Melbourne club Revolver were in for a surprise when regular Friday night DJ Mike Callander was joined in ‘the cage’ by an upstart on the decks: Australian Greens leader Adam Bandt.

Bandt, whose Melbourne electorate now takes in “Revs” – as the nightclub on Chapel Street in Prahran is fondly known – played for about 90 minutes into the early hours of Saturday morning, wearing a white T-shirt, and a white cap emblazoned with the words “vote”.

Punters were shocked – and delighted – to find he had both excellent taste in music and the skills to get everyone dancing.

It’s not his first time on the decks: the 53-year-old taught himself on a set of turntables and a DJ controller, so he was in his element.

Adam Bandt on the decks at Revs.

While masquerading as DJ Albo at Richmond’s Corner Hotel in 2016, Anthony Albanese’s playlist included the Skyhooks, Iggy Pop and Hunters and Collectors.

But DJ Bandt surprised the Revolver bar staff with a set chock-full of current club hits.

His playlist included Jamie xx’s Baddy On the Floor and Steve Mac & Nick Reach Up’s Do It, as well as classic bangers including Vengaboys’ We Like to Party! (Venga Bus) and AC/DC’s TNT.

The crowd was very enthusiastic, with some posing for selfies with Bandt after his set.

Not a word was spoken about housing, renewable energy or Medicare for dental (although someone was spotted dancing behind him with what looked like the giant red toothbrush he has used as a prop in recent TV appearances).

In fact, it was an entirely politics-free evening.

Now that is an Easter miracle.

That’s it for the third week of our Hot Seats blog.

It’s been eventful to say the least. We really hope you’re enjoying it.

The Age’s editor, Patrick Elligett, wrote about how we’re doing the blog and where it fits into our wider election coverage in his weekly letter to subscribers.

We’ll be back on Monday with plenty more news and insights into these key electorates.

As I’ve moved through the Wills electorate over the past three weeks, one of the hardest things to gauge is how the war in Gaza will shape the result at the ballot box.

For those deeply engaged in the issue – many of them Greens or minor party voters – Labor’s response is unacceptable to a conflict where more than 60,000 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its invasion in response to the Hamas attacks in late 2023 which killed 1300 people. For them the conflict is likely a decisive factor in how they’ll vote.

What’s less clear is how much the broader electorate is paying attention. Labor campaigners insist it’s not an issue that comes up much on the ground.

Former MP for Wills Phil Cleary says he’s very disappointed in Labor’s stance on Gaza.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

Notably, in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” on Thursday night, sitting Labor MP Peter Khalil was asked just once about Palestine – a question he didn’t respond to, though he was inundated with queries.

By contrast, the Greens say Gaza is one of the top issues raised when their candidate, Samantha Ratnam, and her campaign volunteers go door to door.

Khalil is also under pressure from Muslim Votes Matter, a well-organised campaign group that for months has been targeting mosques, Ramadan night markets and Islamic community events to push voters away from Labor.

Wills is one of three seats – along with Calwell and Bruce – where the group is actively campaigning against the sitting Labor MP.

According to the 2021 census, 16,236 Wills residents – about 10 per cent of the electorate – identified as Muslim, and nearly half spoke Arabic at home.

The number of Muslim voters dropped slightly after a redistribution, but if they vote as a bloc and back the Greens, it could be enough to unseat Labor.

The Greens need a 4.6 per cent swing to win Wills. Muslim Votes Matter has urged supporters to back Ratnam, who has been outspoken in her support for Palestine. One person who knows Wills as well as anyone – and believes Gaza could decide the vote – is former independent MP for the electorate, Phil Cleary.

Before politics made him famous, Cleary was known locally for 205 games he played for Coburg Football Club, where he won a premiership in the state’s second-tier VFA competition, and then later also coached the club to championship wins.

He held Wills from 1992 to 1996 after Bob Hawke retired from the seat – and Cleary remains the only non-Labor MP ever to do so.

Phil Cleary with Bob Hawke.

Interviewed at his West Brunswick home, Cleary – a lifelong resident of Wills – said Gaza would be the defining issue in the seat.

“Peter Khalil will be a victim of the party machinery in that he has not been able to speak out on a major question that may swing voters and that is the question of Gaza and Palestine,” Cleary said – stopping just short of predicting the issue would lose the seat for Labor.

Cleary’s sister Vicki was murdered by her former partner in 1987. Since then, he’s campaigned relentlessly to end male violence against women.

The day after the federal election, the annual Vicki Cleary Day will be held at Coburg City Oval, and Cleary says Khalil has given him support “for my campaign to have violence against women really recognised – he has taken it to the prime minister on my behalf”.

Still Cleary said he was “conflicted” because Khalil’s position on Gaza had not impressed him.

“Whereas the Greens have. Unfortunately, Peter is a victim of a party that won’t use words like genocide and won’t talk strongly about the killing of women and children in Gaza. How could a person like me, who’s campaigned for more than 30 years around violence against women, not talk about Gaza? I would be a hypocrite.”

Within a few days of becoming The Age’s Bruce correspondent, I received an email from Amanjit Gill.

She runs the controversial Facebook page City of Casey Transparency Advocate, and has her finger on the pulse of all things local.

Her page has led to legal threats, and she’s been reported to the Local Government Inspectorate as she publishes inconvenient screenshots, public documents and often-accusatory analysis.

She haunts politicians of all levels and stripes, demanding straightforward answers to simple questions. I wanted to know more about the person behind the page, and what drives her.

Amanjit Gill, the woman behind Casey Transparency Advocate Facebook page.Credit: Charlotte Grieve

We met for coffee and chai at Cafe Transylvania in Hallam, and I learned Gill’s story is reflective of many in Bruce, and emboldens her dedication to democracy.

Her parents moved from India in the 1970s to Endeavour Hills where life was not easy.

As a child, she remembers putting groceries back on the shelf after her father was injured at his factory job. Money was tight but he worked hard to keep the house. “We had to hustle,” she says.

There were fights at home, and bullying at school, but she focused on her studies and thrived in the public education system.

Starting her schooling at Charcoal Lodge, she finished at Gleneagles Secondary College, graduating in 2000 as dux of the year.

“I got a great education. I was lucky to have teachers who were fastidious about English and maths, and I remember trying really hard,” she says.

She was the only student from her class to be accepted by the University of Melbourne, where she studied engineering.

Girls don’t leave the family home until they’re married in her culture, she says, so she made the three-hour round trip to uni multiple times a week using cars, buses and trains.

The degree took seven years instead of five, but eventually, she graduated – to the great pride of her family.

“Even on my mother’s deathbed, she was talking about how I did engineering,” she says with an embarrassed smile.

She got a corporate job as a software engineer, but when her mother fell ill, Gill took care of her – and used the time to retrain as a teacher, eventually returning to Gleneagles as a high school maths teacher.

Her students were among the most disadvantaged in Melbourne, and classes were chaotic.

“Occasionally, it felt physically threatening,” she says.

Language barriers and learning difficulties only made things harder, and the school simply did not have the resources to keep up.

She always stood up for her students, from African, Afghan, Pacific Island backgrounds, and they bonded over the shared migrant experience.

“At the start of the year they’d say, ‘Miss, what’s your nasho?’. I would make them guess, but eventually, I’d tell them I’m Indian, Punjabi. And the kids would just light up and start telling me things about Hindi movies or Hindi actors.”

Gill worked hard creating coursework tailored to her students’ needs and noticed that with the right support, they could excel.

“Some of these kids had missed years of school, and had never done algebra, and they’re sitting in my year 11 maths class being taught algebra,” she says. “That’s great, that’s gutsy and ambitious.

“We need this for the country – we need ambition, we need industriousness, we need people who take risks and go out on a limb. And that’s what they’re bringing.”

It’s this passion for the community that drives her commitment to keeping politicians accountable.

She set up the Facebook page last year out of frustration that councillors involved in the Casey corruption saga began reapplying for public office.

“It made my blood run cold,” she says. “Completely remorseless.”

Burnt out from teaching, she took up an online masters degree in data science, and uses these skills to unearth public documents for her page. What started as a side project, has turned into an all-consuming passion, and a risky one given she has found herself on the receiving end of a legal threat.

She engaged lawyers, who advised her the threat was unfounded, but her husband was terrified the threat alone could send them broke The post remains online and no apologies were issued. While some might have been scared into silence, the experience only emboldened Gill to keep going.

While her primary focus is local government, she’s recently turned her attention to the federal candidates vying to represent Bruce.

When Zahid Safi was pre-selected by the Liberals, Gill was thrilled. An Afghan migrant who speaks Finnish and connects with constituents across the community? It seemed too good to be true.

“He seemed like a guy who gets it,” she said. “And obviously, he’s got that million-dollar smile.”

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton in Berwick in the seat of Bruce on Monday flanked by Liberal candidate Zahid Safi and MP Jason Wood.Credit: James Brickwood

But she became suspicious when her simple questions about his businesses were hidden from his campaign page and his general unwillingness to engage with the media.

As for Labor member Julian Hill, he has also dodged some of her questions and she was disappointed to learn he doesn’t live full-time in the electorate (see our post on this below). But she still thinks he is a “solid representative” for the community.

“He’s willing to talk in parliament about visa issues that other people stay away from because they don’t want to get the hate,” she says. “The community notice that.”

In saying that, she believes local representation is more important in Bruce more than most other electorates.

“For people who are wealthy or who live in wealthier areas, it doesn’t materially matter who is in government because they’re always going to be OK,” she said.

“But for some of the people around here, they literally can’t afford bad representation. Their quality of life is tethered to whoever is in government and whoever is representing them.

“If you didn’t grow up here, or if you weren’t working class, you can’t understand it.”

She won’t tell anyone how to vote and has a clear vision for her page – for which she receives no money but stays up late digging for documents out of a determination to make democracy work better.

“Candidates have so much power, and they’re just telling us whatever they want. I want to give people the unvarnished truth and not the version the candidates want you to have.

“Information is power. If I give people more information, then we’ll balance the scales a bit more towards the community.”

When the Australian Electoral Commission finalised the redistribution of Kooyong bringing in 26,000 additional voters from Toorak and surrounding areas, chatter immediately turned to what it would mean for teal independent Monique Ryan.

The consensus was swift: the new boundaries, which carved out parts of Kooyong and added in chunks of the now-abolished seat of Higgins, were seen as a win for the Liberal Party — and a problem for Ryan, pushing her hold on the seat from 2.9 per cent to 2.2 per cent.

It even saw a short-lived push for former Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to return and try take the seat back. But election analyst Ben Raue, founder of the blog and podcast The Tally Room, sees things differently.

In fact, he argues the redistribution has slightly increased Ryan’s margin, not diminished it.

“My estimate is that her margin goes up — from 2.9 to 3.5,” Raue told me. “I see that that bit of Higgins that has been added is more friendly towards a teal than the areas that she already had.”

The AEC has placed Ryan’s margin after distribution at 2.5 per cent. The ABC’s Election analyst Antony Green is estimating 2.2 percent (explained here) which is a figure that has been used by this masthead as well.

So why is Raue’s estimate so much more flattering for Ryan than others? Raue says the AEC and psephologists have struggled with redistributions in seats held by independents, because there’s no consistent party to model across electorates.

“[The AEC is] taking the Liberal vote from that new bit of Kooyong and adds it to the existing margin, but not counting any Labor votes because there was no independent in Higgins,” Raue said. “[In my view] it’s totally wrong. You can’t just take one side and not the other.”

Raue’s method looks not just at the raw two-party preferred (2PP) vote, but at how those votes compare to Ryan’s performance as an independent in the old boundaries. Then he applies that same relationship to the new territory — areas that, crucially, have shifted significantly to the left over time.

And although there was no independent running in Higgins in 2022, it still swung hard toward Labor. In Raue’s view, that makes it fertile ground for teal votes in the areas which are now part of Kooyong like Toorak, Prahran and Armadale.

The areas have similar demographics and similar values, he said. “These areas aren’t totally foreign to each other.”

In flyers sent to voters in recent weeks, Hill describes himself as a “genuine local” who “grew up in the south-eastern suburbs”.

There has been a persistent rumour thought that this isn’t the full story. One of the first things I heard when I started covering Bruce for this blog were whispers that Hill lives in the city, and drives to the electorate each day.

Julian Hill and a baby on the campaign trail.Credit: Charlotte Grieve

The claim was repeated and twisted by voters I spoke with on the street, and Liberal campaign staffers pushing the message through Zahid Safi’s social media.

Disgraced campaign manager Andrew McNabb routinely posted online that Liberal candidate Zahid Safi “actually lives in Bruce … unlike other politicians that don’t live in the electorate”.

We asked Hill to tackle the issue head on. How is he a local? Where does he live? What’s with the rumour?

His campaign responded to confirm:

• Hill grew up in Burwood and went to high school in Glen Waverley (part of Bruce before the boundaries were redrawn).
• He bought a house in 1997 in Port Melbourne, where he “still stays sometimes depending on the diary and commitments noting it’s much closer to the airport and CBD”.
• He moved to Notting Hill in 2015 to campaign for the seat.
• He moved to Dandenong in 2018, where he rents a unit that is his primary residence today.
• Hill also has a flat in Canberra and has to “spend time interstate most weeks which is unavoidable as a minister and federal MP”.

“All of this has been publicly declared on Julian’s parliamentary register of interests,” his campaign said in a statement.

“They’ve run this rubbish every election – last time wandering up and down polling queues saying Julian lived in St Kilda – he has never lived in St Kilda!”

Hill provided a statement, taking aim at his opponents: “This is a desperate attempt from an incompetent Liberal candidate who’s in hiding and has no solutions – just Peter Dutton’s cuts to the services our community relies on.

Julian Hill’s electoral material.Credit: Amanjit Gill

“I proudly live in Dandenong and have lived in Bruce far, far longer than the Liberal candidate who only moved here last year. Instead of peddling lies, the Liberal candidate should come clean on the scandals that have engulfed his campaign.

“This is a baseless distraction from the fact that Peter Dutton will cut and our community will pay – all so he can fund his $600 billion nuclear scheme, which includes a reactor just over an hour away from here.”

As for Safi, his registration on the electoral role was updated in May 2024 to an address in Endeavour Hills. Before that, he was registered to an address in Clyde, outside of Bruce.

He told the Berwick Star this week: “I have lived in Endeavour Hills and have done so for two years, prior to this I’ve lived in Narre Warren.”

Liberal candidate for Kooyong Amelia Hamer has publicly addressed the controversy over her property portfolio for the first time, defending her decision to rent in Hawthorn while owning investment properties in London and Canberra.

I broke the story last week that Hamer owns two homes — a detail that had been absent from her campaign messaging to date, which had promoted her as a renter grappling with the same plight as many Millennials unable to break into the property market or delaying having children due to housing difficulties.

Speaking at a funding announcement for Greythorn Park Pavilion in Balwyn North on Wednesday, Hamer did not acknowledge omitting her property ownership from the campaign, but pivoted to discussing the difficulties of being a landlord.

“You can be renting and you can also own a property,” she said. “I’ve spoken to over 10,000 people in this local community, and in those conversations we’ve talked about the struggles of renting — that people are telling me about — and the struggles of being a home owner.

“We also talk about the struggles of being a landlord in the state of Victoria at the moment because that is really, really hard. People tell me they’re struggling to continue to rent properties out in this market.”

Hamer denied that the revelations — and subsequent attacks from her opponent Monique Ryan — had damaged her electoral chances.

“I’ve spoken to a number of people who are in that position as well [renting while owning elsewhere]. There are definitely young voters who do that,” she said.

“You hear it — I mean, I was listening to it on the radio just this morning — people talking about ‘rentvesting’.

“You can see both sides of the coin and empathise with different people’s experiences,” she added.

“The reality is I’m focused on listening to people, understanding their experiences, and seeing what we can actually get done for them.”

Pressed on her own investments, Hamer noted that she was not a landlord in Victoria — and didn’t plan to be — saying: “Victoria’s a terrible place to be a landlord.”

It also emerged yesterday that Hamer is one of a number of beneficiaries to a $20 million family trust.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused teal independents of being “Greens in disguise,” escalating his attacks on the crossbench as controversy brews over push polling in key inner-city seats.

“This fraud has to stop,” Dutton said at a press conference in Mt Dee in NSW on Thursday, claiming many teal supporters were “Greens who have now got a teal T-shirt on”.

“At least the Greens have the honesty to stand up and say, ‘We’re Greens – we’ve got crazy policies, sure, but you should know that going into the election’,” he said.

His comments come after our reporting this morning that robocalls and text messages mirroring previous push-polls commissioned by Climate 200 had gone out to voters in Kooyong, the seat held by Monique Ryan, and in Goldstein, held by Zoe Daniel.

The text-based poll highlighted Ryan’s record on cutting HECS debt and prescription medication costs, while the robocall warned of a $600 billion cost for the Coalition’s nuclear energy policy – messaging that echoes Ryan’s own campaign lines.

Before evidence of the polling in Kooyong emerged this morning, Ryan said on ABC TV that push-polling was “not ideal” and that she hadn’t undertaken any surveys in Kooyong.

A Liberal campaign spokesman said the party did not engage in push polling

My colleague, Olivia Ireland, who broke the news about the Goldstein polling, asked Dutton whether push-polling should be banned. He simply said candidates should “follow the Electoral Act”.

Dutton rattled off a laundry list of attacks on Ryan and the so-called teals.

“Monique Ryan’s husband still hasn’t declared whether there was only one sign or multiple signs that he stole,” he said, referencing the now-infamous video of Ryan’s husband removing a corflute for Liberal Kooyong candidate Amelia Hamer.

“She sits there blankly talking to David Speers, not knowing whether content should be authorised or not,” he said, referencing a moment on Insiders on Sunday when Ryan could not say whether she believes social media influencers should have to reveal when they receive payment for flattering posts about politicians.

As we reported here, she clarified on Monday that she misunderstood the question and was in favour of disclosure.

“She’s either transparency or you’re not,” Dutton continued.

“These people are hypocrites. They fooled people into thinking they were disaffected Liberals – they’re Greens.”

He went on to warn that a vote for an independent would help deliver a Labor minority government.

“That’s a disaster for negative gearing,” he said.

“This prime minister has a secret plan to abolish negative gearing. They’ve got the costings, they’ve got the policy ready to go after the election – they just won’t tell you about it until after the election.”

Again, I’ve reached out to Ryan’s team for comment and haven’t heard back on the developments since her ABC appearance this morning – but when I do, you’ll read it here first.

Independent MP Zoe Daniel says she was unaware of the controversial phone polling undertaken by Climate 200 in her electorate and claimed it was not push-polling.

My colleague, Olivia Ireland, reported today that Climate 200 has been using robocalls to spruik teal MPs, including Daniel, and tarnish their opponents under the banner of conducting polling, a practice commonly referred to as “push-polling”.

Fellow teal MP Monique Ryan told the ABC on Thursday morning that push-polling was “not ideal” and that she was not aware of it occurring in her seat. Shortly after that TV appearance, my Hot Seats blog colleague, Rachael Dexter, broke the story that apparent push-polling, focused on the Liberal Party’s nuclear policy, had been conducted in Ryan’s seat of Kooyong.

Daniel, the MP for Goldstein, said the poll in her seat was not commissioned, paid for or put into the field by her campaign.

“Climate 200 has made it clear to us that this poll meets AEC guidelines,” she said. “They are adamant that it does not constitute push-polling, despite claims to the contrary.”

Daniel said she had not been aware that the polling had been conducted and that she had not seen the results.

“As I’ve previously stated, I do not support push-polling for myself or anyone else,” she said.

Credit: Matt Golding

Background information supplied by Climate 200 describes the poll conducted by uComms as standard message testing.

The polling is described as beginning with neutral questions about age, gender and voting intention, which is in line with Australian Polling Council guidelines.

The information supplied by Climate 200 states that much later in the poll, after the initial vote intention is recorded, uComms tests messages by describing a candidate’s qualities and focus areas.

A follow-up question about voting intention then helps assess how different groups respond to the message, which Climate 200 said informed strategic decisions.

I’ve contacted Climate 200 for comment.

Former prime minister Scott Morrison was filmed at an event with Bruce Liberal candidate Zahid Safi on Wednesday night.

It’s the latest visit from a Liberal heavyweight. John Howard and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have also been on the hustings with Safi in recent weeks, and dining with volunteers.

The Liberals are throwing resources at the Labor-held seat under the mantra of “win Bruce, win government”, although Safi’s whereabouts have been tightly guarded, even among his own membership base.

On Wednesday night, it was drinks and canapes at the Mercure hotel in Doncaster, organised by Liberal MP Jason Wood, who has been a key supporter of Safi during the campaign.

Afghan war interpreter turned former Dandenong council candidate Liaqat Khan uploaded a short video to social media capturing Morrison, Safi and Wood addressing a room of mostly male supporters.

Liberal MP Jason Wood, Scott Morrison and Bruce candidate Zahid Safi.Credit: Shawn Mendis

In the clip, Morrison flashes a tight smile before looking at the ground and rubbing his nose as Safi delivers a speech saying:

Thank you former prime minister Morrison for supporting us tonight here. We have been campaigning in Bruce like no tomorrow. Our campaign runs on your help and support. Without your support, we can’t survive.

We have created a very good impression in Bruce. We are optimistic we can win Bruce. Cost of living is on everyone’s mind. We have seen 12 interest rate rises.

As former prime minister indicated and stated, these are the outer suburbs that are hurting.

Small business owners are hurting. The pockets are hurting. That’s the message that Peter Dutton is carrying out.

On May 3, with your support, we will see the back of Albanese government.”

While some keen Bruce Liberals say they didn’t get the invite, Pakenham solicitor Shawn Mendis uploaded happy snaps with Morrison in a post that praised the “wonderful event”.

Mendis is well-connected in the Liberal Party.

Victorian Opposition Leader Brad Battin was filmed in a promotional video uploaded to the solicitor’s Facebook page in March this year, praising Mendis for helping with “things we’ve been doing in Sri Lanka”.

“I’ve known Shawn for a couple of years. I’ve got to know him more probably over the last 12 months. But he’s been involved in the community before that ... he’s known a few of my colleagues in town,” Battin says.

“The work he’s done here has been magnificent.”

While Mendis was front and centre at the event Morrison attended last night, other Liberal members who have been active on Safi’s campaign didn’t get an invite.

“I knew nothing about it until I saw the posts,” said one Liberal member. “Wondering if they have tightened up their circle of trust.”