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March 24, 2025
STEAL INDEPENDENT: Kooyong MP Monique Ryan's teal-clothed husband has embarrassingly apologised after being filmed removing a large campaign poster of Liberal challenger Amelia Hamer in a suburban Melbourne street.
"I unreservedly apologise for removing the sign," Peter Jordan said in a statement after the video circulated online on Monday morning showed him being confronted by a Coalition supporter near Burke Street, Hawthorn.
"I believed the sign was illegally placed but I should have reported my concerns to council."
In the video, the person who says they own the large corflute sign, confronts Mr Jordan as he is carrying it down a footpath, pictured left. They ask him what he's doing and who he is.
"I'm not saying who I am," Mr Jordan replies before the person filming points out he is wearing a teal T-shirt under his similarly coloured jumper.
"Are you a Monique Ryan supporter ripping down people's signs, are you? Is that what you're doing? That belongs to me. Hey, you can take it off the property but it belongs to me," the person with the phone says.
Mr Jordan tells them repeatedly he believes the sign was illegally put up on public land.
"I'm not acting on behalf of anyone, mate," he says in the video.
"It's an illegally put up sign. If you want to put up an illegal sign, anyone will take it down."
The teal independent also apologised. "It should not have happened. All concerns around signage should be reported to council," Dr Ryan, pictured inset with Mr Jordan, said in a statement.
Victorian Liberal senator James Paterson queried whether it was the first time he had attempted to steal a Liberal Party sign, insinuating he or other volunteers had been behind a number of incidences in recent weeks.
"Is Monique Ryan aware of any other reports of inappropriate behaviour from her volunteers? Have any of her other volunteers been involved in a sign theft and vandalism?" he said.
"Really, all we're asking for in Kooyong is a clean contest.
"The teal politicians are the first and the loudest to preach integrity . . . (and) the first and the loudest to preach honesty.
But when they think no one is looking, they behave very differently indeed.
"The footage that's emerged today of Monique Ryan's husband Peter Jordan reflects very badly on her and her campaign and the way in which they have conducted themselves."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese scoffed when told of the incident, saying he did not know who Dr Ryan's husband was.
Kooyong encompasses two local council areas, Stonnington and Boroondara in Melbourne's leafy inner-east. Under Boroondara rules, signs and banners can be displayed on private land or private structures without a permit, but if a political candidate wants to erect corflutes on council-controlled land they will need a permit, and signs cannot be unattended. Signs and banners cannot be placed on council-owned buildings, fences or power poles.
The rules are similar in Stonnington Council.