How an artist helped turn Kooyong teal

Book designer WH Chong tells ArtsHub why he helped campaign for Dr Monique Ryan, the newly elected independent member for Kooyong.

The passionate, grassroots campaigns of independent candidates in once blue-ribbon Liberal seats such as Kooyong and Goldstein in Victoria, North Sydney and Wentworth in NSW, and Curtin in Western Australia, were without doubt one of the most compelling and exciting aspects of the recent Federal election.

‘I felt like so many voters did, poorly represented by the local MP; in my case it was Josh Frydenberg. We got the picture: No vision for the future, only power for power’s sake,’ he explained.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's former National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in early 2020. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association in 2021, and a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Photo: Fiona Hamilton. Follow Richard on Bluesky @richardthewatts.bsky.social and Instagram @richard.l.watts