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May 1, 2025
A Teal-controlled local council has been handed a “humiliated defeat” in the Victorian Supreme Court, after a Judge ordered them to stop removing Liberal signs from a Kooyong polling booth.
The Victorian Liberal Party had applied for an injunction on Wednesday after Boroondara council workers were filmed removing Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer’s signs at a pre-poll booth in Kew.
The Council had informed all parties they were only permitted to have one corflute per candidate and others would be considered “non-permitted advertising” and removed.
However, the Liberal Party claimed this threatened “the implied freedom of political communication protected by the constitution”, and on Thursday evening the state's Supreme Court ordered council workers “be restrained from taking any steps to prevent the display of multiple A-frame signs at the early Voting Centre”.
The decision was welcomed by Liberal Party campaign spokesperson and shadow home affairs minister James Paterson, who said the “Teal-controlled” council should apologise to voters.
“In a humiliating defeat, the Teal-controlled Boroondara Council’s attempt to remove Liberal signs at the Kooyong prepoll has been rejected by the Supreme Court,” he said.
“It was never the place of a local council to seek to restrict free political communication in a federal election.
“The Council should apologise to ratepayers for the expense of this unnecessary action and stick to their core responsibilities instead of meddling in federal politics.”
However, a spokesperson for the Council attempted to downplay the decision, claiming the judge had “recognised the Council’s role in guaranteeing public safety and upheld Councils’ right to take action to maintain the safety of our community”.
“Council’s primary concern has always been protecting the health and safety of our community while maintaining accessibility to the pre-polling station,” a City of Boroondara spokesperson said.
“We have always said we would review and consider any application for more advertising based on these safety and accessibility principals.
“While this ruling allows candidates to put up more signs, they will still be subject to Council’s oversight and strict safety controls at the Kew pre-poll location.”
Council officers will be on site on Friday to ensure signage is presented in a way that ensures safety for pedestrians and road users, and that accessibility to the pre-polling station and nearby shops and businesses is maintained.
“We will be allocating the space where advertising may be safely placed on Friday 2 May,” the spokesperson said.
While local amenity laws used to remove the Liberal signage have long been in place, Boroondara Council only began using them to enforce restrictions on polling booths as recently as this week – hours after a local councillor and prominent Teal campaigner posted footage to social media complaining about the Liberal campaign’s use of signage.
“Liberal Party games continue at Malvern Prepoll as Amelia Hamer builds a literal wall and uses umbrellas to try and deny places for people to hand out flyers or put signs,” Councillor Rob Baillieu posted
“Amelia Hamer has to be one of the least ethical candidates of this election. Lying and playing games.”
In 2022, Mr Baillieu was a high profile campaign organiser working on Kooyong MP Monique Ryan’s campaign.
Boroondara Mayor Sophie Torney also ran as a Teal independent at the 2022 state election and at the 2024 local government election.
Sky News is not suggesting Monique Ryan had any involvement in the decision to remove the Liberal signs.