Teal ‘convert’ Nomi Kaltmann straddles political crossroads ahead of Victorian election
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The independent teal candidate in a crucial seat in the Victorian election ran for a series of Labor Party office-holder positions in February, sparking a backlash from the major parties over her loyalties.
Internal Labor Party documents show lawyer Nomi Kaltmann nominated for five local positions including president of Labor’s Caulfield branch but soon after switched allegiances and jumped on the teal bandwagon.
Ms Kaltmann, 30, said the leaking of the form was designed to discredit her in the race to win the marginal Liberal seat, which is crucial to the Coalition having any chance of forming government in its own right.
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If Labor can pick up the inner-southeastern Liberal seat, which has a margin of 0.1 per cent, it would make it even more difficult for the Coalition to govern because of the Andrews government’s huge majority going into the November 26 election.
Liberal frontbencher Georgie Crozier said the nomination form for the interim branch executive showed Labor was omnipresent in the seat.
“It’s clear Labor will be running two candidates in Caulfield. Ms Kaltmann, who uses the name Rochel on official documents, has worked for two Labor MPs, is married to a previous Labor candidate, sought an official position within the Labor Party earlier this year and was an active member until just one week ago,” she said.
“Let’s be perfectly clear – this isn’t a community campaign but a second Labor candidate in disguise.”
Ms Kaltmann accused Labor of leaking the nomination form, where she ran unsuccessfully for the positions, to undermine her run for parliament.
She resigned from the ALP eight days ago, having previously been an adviser to now Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and former state minister Marsha Thompson.
“I never denied being part of the party. They’re leaking internal documents because that’s what they do to people that don’t toe the party line,’’ she said.
“It is exactly for this reason they will lose Caulfield because both major parties use dirty tricks and scummy political tactics.”
Ms Kaltmann’s decision to run for the teals has shocked the Labor Party, which had considered elevating the mother of three into state parliament.
To be eligible to run for the Labor office bearer positions, would-be candidates needed to be members of a local branch in the state seat.
Ms Kaltmann said she had decided three years ago that she would not run for parliament for Labor after bemusement about the replacement candidate for the former upper house cabinet minister Philip Dalidakis, who resigned suddenly.
Enver Erdogan, a former lawyer and councillor from Melbourne’s north, was chosen for the southern metropolitan electorate despite the geographical disparity.
Ms Kaltmann is founder and president of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance’s Australian branch.
A senior Labor source said there was “genuine shock” in the party that Ms Kaltmann had defected to the teals, which are a chance to win several seats at the election and, with the Greens, hold the balance of power in the lower house.
The teals are also set to run in the Liberal seat of Kew and the Labor seat of Hawthorn, both in Melbourne’s inner east and part of the old seat of Kooyong.
The teal member for Kooyong, Monique Ryan, is also a former Labor Party member.
Climate 200’s Simon Holmes a Court said in July that after interest from its donor community, polling was undertaken to understand the potential of a number of state seats.
The polling had informed some discussions but at the time had not been shared with any local campaign.
Two of the masterminds behind Dr Ryan’s Kooyong campaign are quietly overseeing the teals’ push to seize Hawthorn and Kew.
Dr Ryan’s former marketing and data strategist Brent Hodgson has based his campaign for the crucial inner-city Labor seat of Hawthorn on the ground floor of an office block opposite a hotel in the middle of the electorate.
Ms Crozier said the voters of Caulfield would not tolerate having a long-term Labor member switching allegiances so close to the election.
“Caulfield residents won’t fall for these tricks and will continue to back a genuine local member and a Liberal team with real solution to fix the health crisis.”
Labor has 55 seats (57 after the redistribution) and there is a growing expectation that the Andrews government could be forced into minority, with a potentially sizeable crossbench, in the 88-member lower house.
In the current parliament, Labor has 55 seats, the Coalition 27, Greens three and independents three.
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