Former radio host launches third bid to oust Dan Tehan – with big-name backing

A young independent who caused something of a political sensation when he transformed a western Victorian blue-ribbon Liberal electorate into a marginal seat at the last election has launched his third attempt to wrest shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan from federal parliament.

Alex Dyson, 36, was supported by the independent teal member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, when he launched his bid for the seat of Wannon in his home town of Warrnambool at the weekend.

Zoe Daniel and the candidate for Wannon, Alex Dyson, in Warrnambool.Credit: Tony Wright

Daniel’s presence and upbeat speech to a crowd of several hundred supporters suggest Dyson is considered a serious chance among the tide of independents who have upended federal politics recently.

Daniel referred to the mantra of the woman who pioneered community-based politics in Australia, Cathy McGowan, in encouraging Dyson’s supporter base.

“Talk to 10 people,” Daniel told each of Dyson’s supporters. “And ask each of them to talk to 10 people, and each of them to talk to 10 people.”

McGowan was the independent who in 2013 broke a 74-year conservative hold on the north-east Victorian seat of Indi.

Dyson, whose supporters wear orange T-shirts in honour of McGowan’s grassroots campaigns, says he is not a teal, though his major campaign themes – climate change, the environment and integrity in parliament – align with the movement.

He has also applied for financial help to Climate 200, the funding organisation that provided money for independent teal candidates at the previous election.

He appears to have been successful.

Climate 200 announced in late June that Wannon’s community campaign was one of several around Australia that would receive up to $50,000 each to “turbocharge” their action and “help them find the next [independent ACT senator] David Pocock or [independent member for Kooyong] Dr Monique Ryan”.

Liberal Dan Tehan had his margin cut by Dyson.Credit: James Brickwood

Dyson, a former Triple J radio host, stand-up comedian and children’s author, first stood for Wannon in 2019, announcing his candidature with an exotic “interpretive dance” video.

To the surprise of many observers, he got 10 per cent of Wannon’s primary vote.

In 2022, he almost doubled that primary vote to 19.3 per cent, edging ahead of Labor and winning major booths in Warrnambool, the largest city in the electorate. He picked up enough preferences to cut Tehan’s margin to just 3.8 per cent, down 5.3 per cent.

Wannon, almost the size of Belgium and the second-largest electorate in Victoria, stretches more than 400 kilometres along the coast, from Anglesea in the east to the South Australian border, and inland across rich grazing districts and as far north as Halls Gap in the Grampians.

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser held Wannon from 1955 to 1983, and former speaker of the House of Representatives David Hawker held the seat from 1983 to 2010, when Tehan won it.

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