Liberal Party rising star Amelia Hamer will be endorsed as the candidate for the state seat of Malvern, after convincingly holding off three other contenders in the preselection vote.
More than 200 Liberal Party members attended Caulfield Race Course on Sunday to select a new candidate following the retirement of former Liberal leader Michael O’Brien, who will step down after next year’s November state election.
Amelia Hamer (right) and Jacqueline Blackwell (light blue jacket) greet Liberal Party members at Caulfield Racetrack on Sunday for the preselection meeting.Credit: Chris Hopkins
Hamer, an Oxford-educated grandniece of former Victorian premier Sir Rupert “Dick” Hamer, beat Jacqueline Blackwell, the chair of the Liberal Women’s Council of Victoria, as well as Xavier Boffa, a former adviser to former Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto, and barrister Lana Collaris, the Samuel Griffith Society executive director.
Although the contest between Hamer and Blackwell was expected to be close, potentially requiring multiple knockout rounds of voting, Hamer won resoundingly in the first round.
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Blackwell had the backing of former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg, while former premier Jeff Kennett endorsed Hamer.
Hamer famously came within 1500 votes of claiming the federal seat of Kooyong back for the Liberals at this year’s federal election, falling short to incumbent teal MP Monique Ryan.
Blackwell has recently risen through the organisational ranks of the party. She became chair of the Kooyong Federal Electoral Conference, which carries a seat on the state’s party’s administrative committee in July, and was elected chair of the Liberal Women’s Council of Victoria in August.
More to come
