Christina Zigouras with her family on holiday from her X account. Photo: X

The former Labor and Greens candidate is now running as an independent, hoping to turn Michael O’Brien’s retirement into another Teal-style upset in Melbourne’s Liberal heartland

Christina Zigouras seems to love the ballot paper, less so party loyalty. The business owner, former-educator and “republican” has previously run for a lower house seat for Labor and an upper house seat for the Greens. Zigouras the self-described “building designer” has launched a bid to win Malvern as an independent. She has positioned herself in the mould of the “Teal” movement that has reshaped several traditionally safe Liberal electorates.

Zigouras aims to take advantage of retiring Liberal MP Michael O’Brien’s departure from the seat, going head-to-head with his chosen successor, Amelia Hamer. Hamer, who lost federally to Teal MP Monique Ryan in 2025, hopes the Liberal Party’s comfortable 8.1 per cent margin in Malvern is enough to see her across the line at state level in November.

At her campaign launch on Monday night, Zigouras outlined her pitch around local decision-making, and how her professional background helped her navigate the government’s planning and permits system. She argued that policy failures out of Spring Street often show up in vacant shops, developments that stall, and younger residents unable to afford to stay in the neighbourhoods they grew up in.

It’s a message pitched at community concerns rather than party allegiance, from a candidate whose own history sits across three different political camps.

Zigouras first ran for Labor in the bayside seat of Sandringham back in 2014, where she was beaten by Liberal MP Murray Thompson. She did manage to swing the seat towards Labor by more than eight points. Four years later, she switched colours entirely, standing for the Greens in the upper house seat of Northern Metropolitan — a run that ended with a primary vote of just over 500 votes, a share of just 0.13 per cent.

Now under no party banner at all, Zigouras joins a growing list of independents targeting blue-ribbon Liberal territory across Melbourne’s inner east.

In neighbouring Hawthorn, Boroondara Deputy Mayor Shima Ibuki has secured the backing of local group Voices for Hawthorn, campaigning on climate policy, housing affordability and community safety. Meanwhile in Kew, independent Sophie Torney is mounting a challenge against sitting Liberal leader Jess Wilson, also centring her campaign on climate action.

All three campaigns have financial backing from Simon Holmes à Court’s Climate 200 fund, the same network that has helped independents unseat Liberal MPs at a federal level in recent years.

Whether that same formula translates to Victorian state politics in November remains to be seen. But for the Liberal Party, the funded, community-branded challengers in seats like Malvern, Hawthorn and Kew suggest the pressure on its inner-metropolitan heartland is far from a one-election phenomenon.

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From Labor to Greens to Teal-like: Christina Zigouras aims at Malvern