Katie Allen keeps political dream alive, knocking off endorsed candidate

Liberal moderate Katie Allen will attempt a political comeback in the Melbourne seat of Chisholm, securing the party’s endorsement and displacing the current candidate after her former inner-Melbourne seat of Higgins was abolished.

Allen replaces City of Monash councillor Theo Zographos – who was preselected for the Liberal Party in December 2023 – in a move expected to anger some branch members who last year voted for Zographos to take on Labor in the must-win seat in the next federal election.

Katie Allen wants to return to federal parliament, this time in the seat of Chisholm.Credit: Jason South

In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, a Victorian Liberal Party spokesperson said Allen was a “tireless worker and advocate for families”.

“As a paediatrician, she understands the importance [of] the integration of health, education and financial security for the welfare of families. We know she will work her hardest to change the government and get Australia back on track.”

The statement thanked Zographos “for his service to the party as a candidate prior to the redistribution announcement”.

According to ABC election analyst Antony Green, the redistribution improves the Liberals’ chance of defeating Labor MP Carina Garland, who holds the seat by a margin of 6.4 per cent. That margin is expected to halve to 3.2 per cent after some strong Labor-supporting postcodes were transferred to the seat of Menzies and replaced by more conservative voters from the Higgins and Kooyong electorates.

Allen said it was a huge privilege to be endorsed for Chisholm, but there was “a big hill ahead” and she wasn’t taking anything for granted.

In the lead-up to the vote, she and Zographos were both working the phones to shore up support and believed they had the numbers for the newly drawn seat, which absorbed about 40 per cent of Higgins in the redistribution.

Allen was understood to have the backing of several senior Victorian Liberal MPs, who lobbied for her to replace Zographos in part to help address female representation given male candidates’ dominance of preselection victories ahead of the next election.

A review of the Liberal Party’s 2022 election loss recommended a target of 50 per cent female representation within parliamentary ranks in 10 years.

After losing Higgins in the redistribution, Victoria will hold 38 lower house seats at the next federal election. The Liberal Party has preselected five women for lower house seats so far.

To reach gender parity for Victorian candidates at the next election – due before May next year – female candidates would need to be endorsed in about 70 per cent of the remaining electorates.

The Liberal candidate for Kooyong, Amelia Hamer.Credit: Eddie Jim

The Liberal Party committee also unanimously endorsed Amelia Hamer again to contest the newly redrawn electorate of Kooyong.

The endorsement comes as Alice Jordan-Baird secured the support of Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, his political allies in the Labor Party and the Transport Workers Union for the seat of Gorton, which veteran Labor MP and former cabinet minister Brendan O’Connor will vacate at the next election.

The selection of Jordan-Baird means Labor is on the brink of finalising three next-generation candidates for safe Labor seats ahead of the 2025 federal election.

Basem Abdo, an adviser to retiring Labor MP Maria Vamvakinou, is in the box seat to replace his current boss in the safe Labor seat of Calwell.

And in the safe seat of Maribyrnong, currently held by retiring former Labor leader and cabinet minister Bill Shorten, United Workers Union official Jo Briskey is the frontrunner to claim the seat and enter federal parliament – though she could face a challenge from Moonee Valley Mayor Pierce Tyson.

The AWU is still pushing to retain the seat and believes it would succeed if the right to vote had not been taken from local branches. State minister Natalie Hutchins and political adviser Shannon Threlfall-Clarke had both been mooted as potential candidates.

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