Major parties set sights on Dunkley

Brodie Cowburn brodie@baysidenews.com.au

MAJOR party candidates for the Dunkley by-election are expected to be confirmed imminently.

Incumbent Dunkley MP Peta Murphy died from metastatic breast cancer in December. She won the seat for Labor in 2019, and retained it at the 2022 federal election. A by-election will be held to install a new federal MP.

A date for the Dunkley by-election will be locked in soon. Speaker Milton Dick has been tasked with deciding a date for the by-election, but has yet to make an announcement .

The by-election is not expected to take place until February at the earliest.

Labor hasn’t announced a candidate for the by-election as of 8 January. The Liberals are expected to preselect a candidate for the seat within the next week - names touted as contenders for the opposition in the media include Frankston mayor Nathan Conroy, former Carrum MP Donna Hope, and former Carrum candidate Bec Buchanan.

Dunkley was held by the Liberals for more than 20 years before Murphy’s 2019 victory. Bruce Billson was Dunkley MP between 1996 and 2016 before handing the reins to Chris Crewther. Crewther was defeated after just one term.

Murphy narrowly won the seat in 2019, and expanded her margin in 2022. It is now held by Labor with a margin of 6.3 percent.

The Dunkley by-election will prove to be an important test for the Albanese Labor government. Labor won the Aston by-election last year in what was an historic result for a sitting government. Since then it has been damaged by the comprehensive defeat of the Yes campaign at the Voice referendum, and continued cost of living pressures.

The Dunkley electorate encompasses Frankston, Mt Eliza, Langwarrin, Skye, and Seaford.