Meet your Macnamara candidates for the 2025 Federal Election 

With the federal election to be held before May 17, the campaigns of the candidates vying for the seat of Macnamara are now heating up. 

The incumbent Labor MP Josh Burns, the Greens’ new candidate Sonya Semmens, and the Liberal Party’s new candidate Benson Saulo are all confirmed to run.

Southbank News contacted each of the candidates to discuss their plans for the electorate and their key priorities heading into the election.

The incumbent MP Josh Burns, who has represented the electorate since 2019, told Southbank News that the top priority for his government was to continue reducing inflation so that the “economic setting” would provide relief, particularly for homeowners and renters.

The last quarter yielded positive results for the government, with underlying inflation dropping from 3.6 per cent in September to 3.2 per cent in December, paving the way for a potential interest rate cut in February.

“We will hopefully see everyone turn a corner and hopefully people get a little bit more breathing room because that’s been a huge focus of all of our work in government,” Mr Burns said. 

In addition to improving the country’s economic climate, Mr Burns said that an elected Labor government would continue working with state and local governments to improve the electorate’s essential local infrastructure.

In December last year, the federal government announced $4 million to support the revamp of the Northern undercroft on City Rd in Southbank, which he said would “rejuvenate” the area.

Following a rise in antisemitic attacks, including Mr Burns’ St Kilda office being vandalised in April last year, he said the government would also be looking to pass legislation this month to create new criminal protections against hate crimes.

Before Mr Burns was elected in 2019, Macnamara was formerly the Division of Melbourne Ports, which was held by Labor from 1906. However, in 2022 former Greens candidate Steph Hodgins May was 298 votes shy of winning the electorate, and it’s considered a “priority” seat for the party in the upcoming election.

The Greens’ new candidate Sonya Semmens, who works as an NGO consultant, is confident about her bid for Macnamara with the cost-of-living crisis and housing affordability at the forefront of her campaign.

As a renter living within the electorate, she said that she understood the challenges that many people were facing and was dedicated to working with the community to listen to their concerns and act. 

Her campaign is already well under way having already begun doorknocking on a daily basis to inform residents of her party’s policies. 

To combat the housing crisis, the Greens still want to implement a rent freezes, cap rent increases, end negative gearing, deliver cheaper mortgages, create a public property developer and establish a National Renters Protection Authority.

Late last year, Labor with the support of the Greens successfully passed its Help to Buy shared equity scheme for homeownership and Build to Rent tax incentives. In 2023, it also secured a $10 billion investment in affordable housing through the Housing Australia Future Fund.

However, Ms Semmens told Southbank News that Labor’s plan didn’t do enough to “tackle” the cost-of-living crisis and the big issues facing not only Macnamara but all of Australia.

Ms Semmens said she would also like to see a ban on price gouging in supermarkets and divestiture powers introduced to the sector to make grocery shopping more affordable. 

While he was unable to provide comment by deadline, Southbank News most recently caught up with the Liberal Party’s new candidate Benson Saulo in August last year, when he provided insight into the approach he would take if elected. 

With a wealth of experience in international finance and as Australia’s Consul-General to the United Nations General Assembly to parliament, Mr Saulo said he was well placed to represent the diverse needs of the Macnamara electorate. 

“I think that my experience and the work that I’ve done over the past 15 years has positioned me to be a really effective Liberal Member for Macnamara,” Mr Saulo told Southbank News in August last year.

The Elwood-based father of two has conceded that it would be a genuine “three-way race,” and pledged to fight for both residents and businesses, who he said were struggling with cost-of-living pressures and rising inflation, if elected.

The Liberal Party plans to lower inflation through a reduction in “wasteful” spending, provide Australians with an energy mix that includes renewables, gas, and nuclear, and unlock new affordable homes through investment in essential infrastructure.

Southbank News will bring readers more of each candidate’s plans for Macnamara ahead of the election. •