News / Politics
Final dash to election finish line
High pre-poll voter turnout as candidates make their final pitches before May 21 poll
• Where to vote in Brunswick
Mark Phillips
UPDATED: Friday, May 20, 2022
AFTER a six week campaign that began before Easter, voters in Wills will finally cast their ballots for the 2022 federal election this Saturday.
Polling places will open at 8am and close at 6pm across the electorate of Wills, which takes in Brunswick, Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Glenroy and Fawkner.
Almost 19,000 of the 108,500 people eligible to vote have already cast their votes.
Nine candidates are standing in this year’s election.
Labor’s Peter Khalil will be seeking a third time, while his closest challenger, Sarah Jefford, a surrogacy lawyer, will be hoping to make history as the first Greens MP in the seat’s 73-year history.
But to do so, she will have to achieve a mammoth swing of 8.2% in her favour.
Labor has held the seat for all but four of the 73 years since it was created in 1949, and the party’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, was the local member from 1980 to 1992.
The only aberration was when high-profile independent Phil Cleary won the seat at the 1992 by-election after Mr Hawke’s retirement, and again at the 1993 general election.
The closest the Greens have come to taking the seat was in 2016, when Mr Khalil was a first-time candidate. At that election, the Greens’ Samantha Ratnam rode an 8.6% swing to snare 30.8% of the primary vote.
But she still fell short after preferences were allocated, with Mr Khalil prevailing with 54.9% of the two-candidate preferred vote.
There was a 6.2% swing in the primary vote the other way in 2019, allowing Mr Khalil to win with 58.2% after the allocation of preferences.
Taking nothing for granted
Speaking this week, Mr Khalil said he had picked up a strong mood in favour of a change of government but polling in recent days showing a tightening of the margin between Labor and the Coalition suggested the national result would be close.
He said he not only wanted to be re-elected, but to be able to serve Wills for the first time as a part of government rather than from opposition.
“I don’t take any vote for granted,” he said.
“At a local level, it’s a contest between Labor and the Greens and I think the work I have done for the community and with groups and organisations throughout my electorate has a good track record.
“I want to continue to work hard for the community but also to be in government so we can implement all those policies I’ve talked about, so for that reason I encourage people to vote one for Labor.”
In a short break between handing out how to vote cards, Ms Jefford said she had enjoyed the campaign and it had whetted her appetite to stand again, whatever the outcome on Saturday.
“It’s been very positive and the team has enjoyed it,” she said.
“I haven’t had any great expectations or thought about what would be success. For me as a new candidate just enjoying myself is a measure of success.
“Winning or losing was not the goal. Just getting the Greens voice out there and pushing our platform and pushing Labor to go harder and faster on climate was important.”
She added that it had been exciting to have three other progressive women – Sue Bolton from the Socialist Alliance, Leah Horsfall from the Animal Justice Party and Emma Black from the Victorian Socialists – also running in Wills.
Tom is the endorsed Liberal candidate for federal seat of Wills.
He is an experienced ecologist having worked for the past 19 years in conservation, research and consulting. He has a PhD in Forest Science from The University of Melbourne and has published research on the drought-responses of native flora, and the microclimate of Australian temperate woodlands.
As part of his consultancy work, Tom has undertaken projects in every State and Territory in Australia. He supported the initial roll out of the Carbon Farming Initiative and has volunteered for Landcare and other community environmental groups.
At school Tom was a State-champion debater, appeared in multiple theatre productions and competed in a variety of sports. He is passionate about the many sport, cultural and voluntary groups in Wills that do so much to bring our multicultural community together.
I am proud to be the endorsed Liberal candidate for Wills. As a professional ecologist I am passionate about our natural environment and will be a strong advocate for better protection for our threatened species. I am also promoting the protection and enhancement of our local environment. Wills has some of the lowest levels of green space in Melbourne and we are highly vulnerable to a warming climate. We need more parks and gardens, more tree-lined streets, and more green spaces.
As a local with three young children all attending school and daycare in the electorate, I will be a strong voice for working families. Wills is a great place to raise a family, but the challenges of rising living costs, substandard public transport options, and longer work hours means less time spent with our children and less time helping at their schools and sports clubs. As your representative in Canberra, I will ensure that the concerns of all families, in all the different shapes and sizes we come, are truly represented.
Small business is the life blood of Wills. Restaurants, cafes, arts studios, factories, backyard entrepreneurs and tradespeople are integral to the social and cultural fabric of our community. A strong local economy means lower taxes, more apprentices, better incentives for training and investment, less regulation –the exact things the Morrison Government is delivering on and what I’ll continue to fight for.
Jill Tindal did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
Hi, I’m Emma Black. I’m a Teacher, a Unionist, and a Climate Activist.
Over the years, I’ve seen secure employment, affordable housing, and essential services in Melbourne’s northern suburbs deteriorate. Meanwhile, politicians on both sides use war-mongering and refugee-bashing to distract from social inequality and the cost-of-living.
That’s why I’m running for the seat of Wills in this election. Victorian Socialists is different to other political parties. We want to channel the vast wealth of society into better healthcare and education, more public housing, tackling the climate crisis, promoting social justice, and creating secure and sustainable jobs. To achieve this, we will massively increase taxes on the super-rich and big corporations as well as fight to put key industries back in public hands.
As a climate activist, I’m outraged by the ongoing environmental negligence of the major parties. Politicians on both sides must stop using “jobs” as cover for prioritising corporate interests over ordinary people and the planet. Addressing the climate emergency means ending our reliance on fossil fuels and rapidly expanding renewables to create secure and sustainable jobs that won’t destroy our planet.
Victorian Socialists is committed to increasing the minimum wage to $30 per hour; ending aboriginal deaths in custody by defunding the police; abolishing mandatory detention for asylum seekers; lifting welfare payments to $1500 a fortnight; and capping rents and mandatory mortgage repayments at 25% of household income.
Help us build a serious left-wing alternative to the major parties in Australia and vote for Victorian Socialists.
Sam Sergi did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
We used to expect that when we left school, we would get a permanent and secure job. Now, one-third of workers have to rely on insecure work. This could be fixed by making casual workers permanent if they have worked for the same employer for six months.
I have never seen a housing crisis like we have now. We need an emergency national program to build a million public housing dwellings, an end to negative gearing and a cap on rents.
Climate change means that some parts of Australia are becoming impossible to live in because of temperatures approaching 50 degree, frequent flooding and intense bushfires. We need to urgently phase out fossil fuels and switch to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
The energy industry needs to be publicly owned to make the renewable energy shift faster, and to guarantee workers in the fossil fuel sector alternative jobs.
It isn’t fair that many billionaires and one-third of large corporations pay zero tax. They must be forced to pay up and return rorted Jobkeeper payments.
Inflation is galloping but incomes are being held down by the federal government. The minimum wage needs to increase to $25 an hour and Centrelink benefits need to be lifted above the poverty line.
I have been elected to the Moreland council three times. I have been part of many local community campaigns as well as acting on people’s day to day issues. If I am elected, I will continue this approach in federal parliament.
Irene Zivkovic did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
I’m Peter Khalil, your Federal Labor Member for Wills. When my parents migrated to Australia they worked hard to give us a better life. We got a fair go, public housing, education and health care thanks to the visionary policies of Labor governments.
My parents instilled in me the importance of giving something back to the country that has given our family so much. That’s why I ran for federal Parliament – to give something back and to dedicate myself to working for our community and our country.
Prior to parliament I dedicated my career to working in foreign affairs and was also a Victorian Multicultural Commissioner promoting our cultural diversity and an Executive Director at SBS.
This federal election, I am focussed on real action. An Albanese Labor Government will deliver:
• real action on climate change with 82% renewable energy by 2030, $24 billion investment in renewables, 400 community batteries for solar across Australia including one in Brunswick and one in Coburg;
• $5.5 million to restore the Moonee Ponds Creek and the Merri Creek;
• a Voice to Parliament for our First Australians, as part of Labor’s commitment to fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart;
• affordable childcare by slashing parents’ out of pocket costs;
• better conditions for workers include making wage theft illegal and action to close the gender pay gap.
Labor is the only party that can form government, throw out Scott Morrison and actually deliver realaction.
With your vote, we can change the government.
Hello neighbours, I’m Leah Horsfall and I’m proud to be running with the Animal Justice Party in Wills, alongside Bronwyn Currie and Chris Delforce in the Senate. I live in Brunswick with my partner and our two young children.
Why should you vote for me, Bronwyn and Chris?
We represent values desperately needed in parliament – kindness, equality, rationality and non-violence. These values underpin all Animal Justice Party policies and the way we operate.
We are the only party that prioritises the wellbeing of animals. We don’t do it instead of caring about people or the environment, we do it as well as caring about people and the environment. We are serious about creating a better world for animals, people and our planet.
Whether we are elected or not, voting 1 for us sends the message that voters want more kindness in our parliament. Whoever wins in Wills and in the Senate will scrutinise the election outcome and what it says about the will of the people they represent.
We get results. Our elected representatives in state parliaments have already made big changes. In Victoria, we have secured funding for pet-friendly crisis accommodation so people fleeing family violence don’t have to make the impossible choice to leave their pet behind. In NSW, animal abusers can no longer be cleared to work with children and face a lifetime ban on owning animals.
Check out our election platform and follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
Whatever you do – vote with your values.
Sarah Jefford lives with her children and partner in Pascoe Vale. Sarah worked at Legal Aid and the Aboriginal Legal Service before opening her own firm, practising in surrogacy and donor conception law.
Sarah is campaigning to be the first woman elected in Wills, to kick out the Liberal government and put the Greens in the balance of power.
We need to stop opening new coal and gas projects and stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry. We need a fair transition away from coal and gas to support green manufacturing.
It’s time the billionaires and big corporations paid their fair share of taxes so that we can fund the transition to 100% renewable energy. We do have the power to run a renewable energy export industry.
The Greens’ fully-costed climate action plan will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, bring electricity costs down, and drive our economy into the future.
If we tax the billionaires and big corporations, we can get dental into Medicare so that you can get the dental care that you need. We will introduce free childcare for everyone who needs it. And we will make politicians accountable with a Federal Anti-Corruption and Integrity Commission.
It’s time to kick out the Liberals and put the Greens in the balance of power so we can take real action on the climate emergency and look forward to a healthy and sustainable future.
Tom is the endorsed Liberal candidate for federal seat of Wills.
He is an experienced ecologist having worked for the past 19 years in conservation, research and consulting. He has a PhD in Forest Science from The University of Melbourne and has published research on the drought-responses of native flora, and the microclimate of Australian temperate woodlands.
As part of his consultancy work, Tom has undertaken projects in every State and Territory in Australia. He supported the initial roll out of the Carbon Farming Initiative and has volunteered for Landcare and other community environmental groups.
At school Tom was a State-champion debater, appeared in multiple theatre productions and competed in a variety of sports. He is passionate about the many sport, cultural and voluntary groups in Wills that do so much to bring our multicultural community together.
I am proud to be the endorsed Liberal candidate for Wills. As a professional ecologist I am passionate about our natural environment and will be a strong advocate for better protection for our threatened species. I am also promoting the protection and enhancement of our local environment. Wills has some of the lowest levels of green space in Melbourne and we are highly vulnerable to a warming climate. We need more parks and gardens, more tree-lined streets, and more green spaces.
As a local with three young children all attending school and daycare in the electorate, I will be a strong voice for working families. Wills is a great place to raise a family, but the challenges of rising living costs, substandard public transport options, and longer work hours means less time spent with our children and less time helping at their schools and sports clubs. As your representative in Canberra, I will ensure that the concerns of all families, in all the different shapes and sizes we come, are truly represented.
Small business is the life blood of Wills. Restaurants, cafes, arts studios, factories, backyard entrepreneurs and tradespeople are integral to the social and cultural fabric of our community. A strong local economy means lower taxes, more apprentices, better incentives for training and investment, less regulation –the exact things the Morrison Government is delivering on and what I’ll continue to fight for.
Jill Tindal did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
Hi, I’m Emma Black. I’m a Teacher, a Unionist, and a Climate Activist.
Over the years, I’ve seen secure employment, affordable housing, and essential services in Melbourne’s northern suburbs deteriorate. Meanwhile, politicians on both sides use war-mongering and refugee-bashing to distract from social inequality and the cost-of-living.
That’s why I’m running for the seat of Wills in this election. Victorian Socialists is different to other political parties. We want to channel the vast wealth of society into better healthcare and education, more public housing, tackling the climate crisis, promoting social justice, and creating secure and sustainable jobs. To achieve this, we will massively increase taxes on the super-rich and big corporations as well as fight to put key industries back in public hands.
As a climate activist, I’m outraged by the ongoing environmental negligence of the major parties. Politicians on both sides must stop using “jobs” as cover for prioritising corporate interests over ordinary people and the planet. Addressing the climate emergency means ending our reliance on fossil fuels and rapidly expanding renewables to create secure and sustainable jobs that won’t destroy our planet.
Victorian Socialists is committed to increasing the minimum wage to $30 per hour; ending aboriginal deaths in custody by defunding the police; abolishing mandatory detention for asylum seekers; lifting welfare payments to $1500 a fortnight; and capping rents and mandatory mortgage repayments at 25% of household income.
Help us build a serious left-wing alternative to the major parties in Australia and vote for Victorian Socialists.
Sam Sergi did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
We used to expect that when we left school, we would get a permanent and secure job. Now, one-third of workers have to rely on insecure work. This could be fixed by making casual workers permanent if they have worked for the same employer for six months.
I have never seen a housing crisis like we have now. We need an emergency national program to build a million public housing dwellings, an end to negative gearing and a cap on rents.
Climate change means that some parts of Australia are becoming impossible to live in because of temperatures approaching 50 degree, frequent flooding and intense bushfires. We need to urgently phase out fossil fuels and switch to 100% renewable energy by 2030.
The energy industry needs to be publicly owned to make the renewable energy shift faster, and to guarantee workers in the fossil fuel sector alternative jobs.
It isn’t fair that many billionaires and one-third of large corporations pay zero tax. They must be forced to pay up and return rorted Jobkeeper payments.
Inflation is galloping but incomes are being held down by the federal government. The minimum wage needs to increase to $25 an hour and Centrelink benefits need to be lifted above the poverty line.
I have been elected to the Moreland council three times. I have been part of many local community campaigns as well as acting on people’s day to day issues. If I am elected, I will continue this approach in federal parliament.
Irene Zivkovic did not respond to the opportunity to provide a candidate statement or photo.
I’m Peter Khalil, your Federal Labor Member for Wills. When my parents migrated to Australia they worked hard to give us a better life. We got a fair go, public housing, education and health care thanks to the visionary policies of Labor governments.
My parents instilled in me the importance of giving something back to the country that has given our family so much. That’s why I ran for federal Parliament – to give something back and to dedicate myself to working for our community and our country.
Prior to parliament I dedicated my career to working in foreign affairs and was also a Victorian Multicultural Commissioner promoting our cultural diversity and an Executive Director at SBS.
This federal election, I am focussed on real action. An Albanese Labor Government will deliver:
• real action on climate change with 82% renewable energy by 2030, $24 billion investment in renewables, 400 community batteries for solar across Australia including one in Brunswick and one in Coburg;
• $5.5 million to restore the Moonee Ponds Creek and the Merri Creek;
• a Voice to Parliament for our First Australians, as part of Labor’s commitment to fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart;
• affordable childcare by slashing parents’ out of pocket costs;
• better conditions for workers include making wage theft illegal and action to close the gender pay gap.
Labor is the only party that can form government, throw out Scott Morrison and actually deliver realaction.
With your vote, we can change the government.
Hello neighbours, I’m Leah Horsfall and I’m proud to be running with the Animal Justice Party in Wills, alongside Bronwyn Currie and Chris Delforce in the Senate. I live in Brunswick with my partner and our two young children.
Why should you vote for me, Bronwyn and Chris?
We represent values desperately needed in parliament – kindness, equality, rationality and non-violence. These values underpin all Animal Justice Party policies and the way we operate.
We are the only party that prioritises the wellbeing of animals. We don’t do it instead of caring about people or the environment, we do it as well as caring about people and the environment. We are serious about creating a better world for animals, people and our planet.
Whether we are elected or not, voting 1 for us sends the message that voters want more kindness in our parliament. Whoever wins in Wills and in the Senate will scrutinise the election outcome and what it says about the will of the people they represent.
We get results. Our elected representatives in state parliaments have already made big changes. In Victoria, we have secured funding for pet-friendly crisis accommodation so people fleeing family violence don’t have to make the impossible choice to leave their pet behind. In NSW, animal abusers can no longer be cleared to work with children and face a lifetime ban on owning animals.
Check out our election platform and follow me on Facebook and Instagram.
Whatever you do – vote with your values.
Sarah Jefford lives with her children and partner in Pascoe Vale. Sarah worked at Legal Aid and the Aboriginal Legal Service before opening her own firm, practising in surrogacy and donor conception law.
Sarah is campaigning to be the first woman elected in Wills, to kick out the Liberal government and put the Greens in the balance of power.
We need to stop opening new coal and gas projects and stop subsidising the fossil fuel industry. We need a fair transition away from coal and gas to support green manufacturing.
It’s time the billionaires and big corporations paid their fair share of taxes so that we can fund the transition to 100% renewable energy. We do have the power to run a renewable energy export industry.
The Greens’ fully-costed climate action plan will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, bring electricity costs down, and drive our economy into the future.
If we tax the billionaires and big corporations, we can get dental into Medicare so that you can get the dental care that you need. We will introduce free childcare for everyone who needs it. And we will make politicians accountable with a Federal Anti-Corruption and Integrity Commission.
It’s time to kick out the Liberals and put the Greens in the balance of power so we can take real action on the climate emergency and look forward to a healthy and sustainable future.
Both Mr Khalil and Ms Jefford said that in conversations with voters, climate change had come up as a top issue.
Mr Khalil said Labor had a strong and achievable range of policies including a target of 82% renewable energy by 2030 and investment in solar batteries and storage and electric vehicle infrastructure.
He said the issue of housing affordability in Brunswick had also been raised regularly and there was voter interest in Labor’s policy to supply 30,000 affordable dwellings and its shared equity home ownership scheme.
Ms Jefford said the Greens had a more progressive climate change policy than Labor and many voters had shown interest in how the minor party would push a Labor government to take more action if the Greens held the balance of power.
She said voters have also been interested in a federal corruption commission, expanding Medicare to include dental health, and housing issues, particularly for renters.
Territorial advantages
Greens candidates have traditionally been stronger in the south of the electorate, particularly the Brunswick area. In 2019, the Greens’ Adam Pulford narrowly attracted more primary votes in the 12 booths in the Brunswick area despite large swings towards Mr Khalil.
Mr Pulford drew 38.75% of the primary vote in Brunswick to Mr Khalil’s 38%. His strongest booths were at Brunswick East and Brunswick South primary schools.
But in the north of the electorate, Mr Khalil was a convincing winner, with 46.1% of the primary vote to Mr Pulford’s 19.2%.
This meant that across the entire electorate, once postal, absentee and pre-poll votes were added, 44.1% of first preference votes went towards Mr Khalil, compared to 26.6% to Mr Khalil.
The Liberals’ Peter Killin was a distant third with 17.9% of the primary vote.
By the end of Wednesday, 18,915 votes had already been cast in Wills or 17.4% of the 108,500 people enrolled to vote in the electorate. The average number of people pre-polling per day this year is about 50% higher than at the same stage in 2019.
In 2019, Mr Khalil drew in almost twice as many pre-poll and postal votes as Mr Pulford, with 42.9% of first preferences going to him.
Five of the nine candidates met in the sole public forum held during the campaign on April 26, when stark differences emerged in the approaches the candidates and their parties would take to combat the global climate emergency.
Mr Khalil has hosted visits by several Labor frontbenchers during the campaign, including shadow Education Minister Minister Tanya Plibersek, and Shadow Aged Care Minister Clare O’Neil.
Labor has promised several million dollars in funding for projects in Brunswick, including $2.1 million to Aboriginal Community Elders Services (ACES) in Brunswick East and $1 million towards the construction of a new arts and community hub in Saxon Street in Brunswick.
Where to vote on election day
Voting booths in Brunswick. Voting is between 8am and 6pm.
St Ambrose Church Hall
3 Dawson St, Brunswick
St Margaret Mary’s Parish Hall
68 Donald St, Brunswick
Brunswick North Primary School
144 Pearson St, Brunswick West
Temple Park Senior Citizens Centre
24 Gray St, Brunswick
Moreland Primary School
157-163 Moreland Rd, Coburg
Brunswick East Primary School
195A Stewart St, Brunswick East
Brunswick South West Primary School
5A South Daly St, Brunswick West
St Joseph’s School Hall
183 Hope St, Brunswick West
Brunswick South Primary School
56 Brunswick Rd, Brunswick East
Holy Trinity Serbian Church
1 Noel St, Brunswick East
Brunswick North West Primary School
3 Culloden St, Brunswick West
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