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March 17, 2025
Teal MP Monique Ryan has been accused of shouting at children and threatening to get "nasty" during an ugly quarrel with Liberal volunteers, whom she claims were "physically aggressive" towards her.
The spat is a sign that tensions are heating up in the battle for the affluent electorate of Kooyong, which Dr Ryan holds on a 2.5 per cent margin, with the starter's gun yet to be fired on the federal election.
Several witnesses told the Herald Sun an altercation between Dr Ryan and some Liberal volunteers aged under 18, who were handing out flyers for candidate Amelia Hamer, occurred near a fruit shop at Hawksburn Village about 10.20am on Saturday.
They claim Dr Ryan told the young volunteers they could not stand where they were, prompting them to say they had as much right as she did.
The Kooyong MP then shouted they were being "childish", according to witnesses, which prompted a supervising Liberal volunteer to point out they were children and should not be spoken to that way.
It is alleged Dr Ryan then said "if you want this to get nasty, we can make it nasty" before leaving the shops.
One of the volunteers involved, who wished to remain anonymous, said the Teals did not "share the same respect that the other parties did".
They said Dr Ryan's shouting was "aggressive" and she did not apologise after learning the volunteers were children.
Asked about the alleged incident, a spokeswoman said Dr Ryan was holding a pop-up office with volunteers on Saturday when people with Liberal Party paraphernalia "arrived late and were physically aggressive" towards her.
"Dr Ryan asked them to move away from her. When they refused to do so, she left," the spokeswoman said.
Victorian Liberal Senator James Paterson said it was "incredibly disappointing".
"The Teals claim to stand for honesty and integrity, but when no one is watching think they can get away with conduct like this," he said.