By STEFAN BRADLEY

 

FORMER Labor candidate for the federal seat of Gippsland in last year’s election, Sonny Stephens, a farmer and veteran from Cowwarr, is making another tilt at politics, this time at the state poll this November.

State government frontbencher and Member for Eastern Victoria Region, Harriet Shing at a May Day dinner (May 1) organised by the Gippsland Trades and Labour Council at Morwell RSL, casually revealed that Ms Stephens is running in the state election for the Gippsland South seat for Labor.

When asked by the Express a fortnight ago, Ms Stephens said she is running to be a Labor candidate, but the process was ongoing and no formal endorsement for Gippsland South had been made.

“I’m not in a position to discuss the matter. I’ve put in a nomination form and am partway through the process,” she said at the time.

At the May Day dinner, former Latrobe City councillor Tracie Lund was formally announced as the Labor candidate for the seat of Morwell. The seat, a key swing seat at the 2022 election, is currently held by Martin Cameron of the Nationals.

The Gippsland South seat is currently held by leader of the Victorian National Party, Danny O’Brien, based near Sale, who has occupied the seat since March 2015. Peter Ryan, a former leader of the Nationals, had held the seat from 1992 to 2015.

The seat is very safe for the Nationals and has never been won by Labor.

Denise Ryan, a Denison farmer, was the Labor candidate for Gippsland South at the 2022 election. On primary votes, Mr O’Brien earned 53.3 per cent of ballots cast, with Ms Ryan 23.4 per cent. On a two-party-preferred count, Mr O’Brien won 65.6 per cent of the vote to Ms Ryan’s 34.4 per cent result. It was a slight 1.6 per cent swing to the Nationals.

When Ms Stephens ran for the federal seat of Gippsland in 2025 (which contains parts of the state Gippsland South electorate), she achieved a 1.2 per swing towards Labor. A small swing for sure, but it reversed Labor’s decline in Gippsland, and the party also performed relatively well in the neighbouring seat of Monash.

As a safe Coalition seat, Nationals incumbent MP Darren Chester retained Gippsland very easily. Ms Stephens said on election night she was committed to run again for Gippsland, but with a state election just 18 months later, she may want to seize the momentum.

The state election will be held on November 28.