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A high-profile Liberal candidate running to reclaim a former blue-ribbon seat has been accused of keeping voters in the dark about her property interests.
Amelia Hamer, the grand-niece of former Victorian premier Rupert Hamer, has repeatedly pitched herself as a renter to appeal to frustrated young voters in the seat of Kooyong in Melbourne’s inner-east.
But the 31-year-old has been forced to come clean ahead of the 3 May federal election, admitting she also owns two properties outside of Melbourne.
“While working in London and Canberra, I took out mortgages to buy the apartments that I lived in,” Hamer said in a statement.
“Now that I’m back living in Melbourne, I am renting in Hawthorn.”
Hamer studied at Oxford University before working in banking, venture capital and technology.
Her profile on the Liberal Party’s website says she wants to “help more locals achieve the dream of home ownership” and will “fight for policies to make home ownership more achievable for young Australians”.
In the lead up to the poll, Hamer told media outlets she was renting a one-bedroom apartment but did not disclose she was a landlord.
“I know my rent’s gone up significantly, I’m a renter,” she said on Nine’s Today Show.
It’s the first major misstep of her push to win back Kooyong after teal independent Monique Ryan unseated former Liberal deputy leader and treasurer Josh Frydenberg in 2022.
Ryan accused her political rival of trying to deceive the people of Kooyong.
“The issue here isn’t that she owns two properties,” she told AAP in a statement.
“It’s that by painting herself as a millennial renter she misled people by not disclosing she was also a property owner and landlord.”
City of Boroondara councillor Rob Baillieu, who volunteered on Ryan’s 2022 campaign, went further by claiming Hamer had lied about being a “struggling renter” while owning millions of dollars worth of property.
“She’s been a politician for five minutes and has already lied to you,” he wrote in a post on X.
“Why would you vote for her.”
Ryan, a former paediatric neurologist and medical researcher, was among a raft of community independents to oust sitting Liberal MPs from former heartland seats in 2022.
She won Kooyong by 2.9 per cent but a redistribution has notionally whittled the margin down to 2.2 per cent, although demographics are skewing younger as more millennials and members of Ggen Z move to the area.
The head-to-head battle between Ryan and Hamer has heated up on the ground since the election was called.
Ryan’s spouse Peter Jordan apologised after video footage emerged of him removing a sign promoting her main political rival.
Hamer also came under scrutiny for pulling out of a candidates’ forum at short notice to participate in a mass phone call to residents with Opposition treasury spokesperson Angus Taylor.
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