12-05-2025
Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer concedes Kooyong giving Monique Ryan a second term
Liberal Party candidate Amelia Hamer has conceded defeat in the seat of Kooyong to independent incumbent Monique Ryan.
After a tense week of vote counting and preference distribution, Dr Ryan pulled ahead of Ms Hamer by several hundred votes in Melbourne's affluent inner-east.
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Earlier on Monday, ABC chief elections analyst Antony Green called the seat for Dr Ryan, saying that with 90 per cent of the votes counted, Ms Hamer would not be able to take the lead.
Late on Monday, Ms Hamer issued a statement on social media saying she had telephoned Dr Ryan to congratulate her on her re-election.
"Whilst counting continues, it is now clear that the remaining ballots will not deliver us the majority we need to win the seat," Ms Hamer said.
"Standing as the Liberal Candidate for Kooyong has been an honour."
Ms Hamer thanked her volunteers and those who voted for her.
"We are so lucky to have a beautiful local community, a fair democracy, and a wonderful country," she said.
"I hope to play my small part in making it a better place, now and into the future."
Ms Hamer earned more than 43 per cent of the first preference vote in the seat, roughly equal to Mr Frydenberg's support in 2022.
It will be Dr Ryan's second term in parliament.
She said she looked forward to the next three years.
"Serving as the Member for Kooyong has been the privilege of a lifetime," Dr Ryan said in a statement.
"I'm incredibly honoured to continue in this role, and thank the electorate for this opportunity."
Dr Ryan said it was a crucial time for Australia.
"We're facing a cost-of-living crisis, housing shortages, increasing intergenerational inequity, and our response to the global challenge of climate change has been too slow and too incremental.
"With the Albanese government holding an increased majority, it's time for it to show the courage we need — and respect the mandate given to it by the Australian public — by taking real action on these issues."
Dr Ryan won the seat from former federal treasurer Josh Frydenberg after the coalition held it for 70 years.
Ms Hamer earned more than 43 per cent of the first preference vote in the seat, roughly equal to Mr Frydenberg's support in 2022.
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It was a bitter campaign in Kooyong, with Ms Hamer accusing Dr Ryan's volunteers of distributing a "dirt file" on her that included information about the grand-niece of former Victorian premier Rupert Hamer being the beneficiary of a $20 million family trust fund, and Dr Ryan's husband removing an Amelia Hamer poster from a fence.
Peter Jordan later apologised for his actions, saying he had believed it had been illegally placed on public property but should have reported it to the local council rather than removing it himself.
Ms Hamer was also heavily criticised for describing herself as a renter who understood the challenges of rising rental costs, when it was later revealed she was also a landlord who owned properties in London and Canberra.
Ms Hamer's signs again courted controversy after Boroondara council confiscated a number of A-frame posters from a pre-polling centre after they were deemed to be a risk to pedestrian safety and breached rules about having just one sign per candidate.
The projection for Kooyong leaves just three seats undecided in the state.
Mr Green said counting in Flinders was leaning in favour of the Liberals' Zoe McKenzie.
'There's just a few more absent votes to be counted to clarify the result there,' he said.
But he said the counts in Calwell and Monash continued to remain complex.
He said the Australian Electoral Commission abandoned the counting of indicative preferences in Calwell as it was impossible to determine who were the top two candidates.
"It seems certain that Labor will be one of the final candidates, but who is the other candidates will be determined by the order in which candidates are excluded during the formal distribution of preferences," Mr Green said.
"That will take place in about 10 days and Calwell will remain is doubt until the full distribution takes place.
At least two independent candidates — Carly Moore and Joseph Youhana — had received primary votes above 10 per cent in the seat, while Labor's Basem Abdo received more than 30 per cent and the Liberals' Usman Ghani had 15 per cent of the vote.
The preference count was also not available in Monash.
Mary Aldred lead by more than 9,000 votes but Mr Green said it would take the full distribution of preference to work out the final pairing in that seat as well.
