Monique Ryan started 2025 as the frontrunner for Kooyong but the latest own goal will damage her

Monique Ryan is normally a page-four politician but not this week. With a margin of just 2.2 per cent versus the Liberals, every little setback could take the Kooyong teal closer to the wire.

Monique Ryan sinking into a bog at the hands of her husband’s Pythonesque stupidity has stunted the momentum the teals had taken into the battle for Kooyong Mark II.

Let’s be clear about things from the outset.

The next dose of interference with a campaign poster is not likely to be the last, nor is it of high national strategic importance.

But the incident has shone another negative light on the teals in Kooyong just when voters are starting to take notice again.

The previous two issues were the unedifying $100,000 court battle between Ryan and her then chief of staff Sally Rugg, followed by benefactor Simon Holmes a Court’s polling booth rant in 2022 against Liberal Senator Jane Hume.

Monique Ryan and Sally Rugg in happier times.

For mine, the latter was the worst look of them all.

But the optics of Ryan’s husband Peter Jordan slinking off with Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer’s sign were poor.

To be honest, I can’t remember laughing as much in a long time, as Jordan, on video, argued with a Liberal about the rights and wrongs of ripping off a sign, no matter what council by-laws he felt had been offended.

The stoush, leaked by the Liberal Party, made prime-time TV on the commercials and featured prominently on the ABC.

It’s probably the biggest Melbourne-based media splash Ryan has made since she was elected.

Jordan’s behaviour could be the case of an overzealous husband doing his bit for the team.

It was so brazen and stupid, however, that it might also point to a sense of panic in team Ryan.

Hamer, whose great uncle Rupert ‘Dick’ Hamer was once Premier of Victoria, is a widely respected political name among older Liberal supporters, the people who might have struggled with Scott Morrison in 2022.

A financier, Oxford-educated and 32, Amelia Hamer is seen as a strong candidate although clearly lacks the profile and money that her predecessor Josh Frydenberg attracted.

Amelia Hamer, Liberal Candidate for Kooyong, at the Rocket Park in Hawthorn. Picture: Alex Coppel

Kooyong, a sea of Liberal billboards (the really big ones) in 2022, has largely become a battle of the corflutes, where Ryan probably outnumbers Hamer, except for the wealthiest pockets of the electorate.

The teal style is effectively to turn the political battle into a parish pump campaign and Ryan’s people are quite good at it.

Monique Ryan election campaign posters were affixed to bicycles that were locked to street furniture around Melbourne.

Monique Ryan arrives at The Lodge in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman

They almost operate under the radar but Ryan is well plugged into the local community, her roots stretching back to Loreto in Toorak (and beyond), where she was dux in 1984.

The teal connections also stretch well past the local eastern suburbs Catholic mafia and normally you would expect her to benefit from a sophomore surge.

The difference in 2025 is the cost-of-living challenges facing an electorate that looks younger and, as a result, is exposed to housing issues and has a generalised cynicism around politics.

It was this sort of cynicism that led Ryan’s husband to make a right fool of himself on national television.

With a margin of just 2.2 per cent versus the Liberals, according to Antony Green, every little setback could take Ryan closer to the wire.

But let’s not forget how funny it was.