Departing Ringwood MP Will Fowles has admitted he has no chance of winning the seat of Preston in Melbourne’s north, but says he’s running anyway to put the spotlight on Victoria’s housing crisis.

Fowles confirmed his nomination as an independent candidate for Preston on Monday November 9.

However, speaking to the Eastern Melburnian on Tuesday morning, Fowles said he was under no illusion that he could win the seat and was instead running to highlight the issue of affordable housing.

“The contest in Preston is between Labor and the Greens,” he said. “This is not a campaign that's going to result in me being elected, but it is an opportunity to talk about issues that are important to me, particularly housing. We are still in a housing crisis, and that housing crisis is right across Melbourne.”

For Fowles, the story of redevelopment in Preston and its historic markets is a major concern.

Originally opened in 1970 and sitting in the City of Darebin in Melbourne’s north-east, the Preston Market has become the site of a power struggle between private developers seeking to build high-density residential apartments and the local community fighting to retain the heritage value of the building.

“Almost ten years ago, Darebin Council refused permits for approximately 300 apartments on part of the site,” Fowles said. “VCAT overturned that decision in 2017, yet those homes have still not been built. Its redevelopment presents an opportunity to preserve the fresh food market while delivering much-needed housing, including affordable homes.”

When pressed on whether the campaign would be expensive, Fowles said it was “not a particularly large amount of money”, with the main nomination fee being $350.

“I’ll have a detailed housing policy that'll be released at some point in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

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Monash councillors have warned ratepayers must not be the ones to inherit the costs of cleaning up a former quarry and rubbish dump in Oakleigh South, after the Planning Minister moved to rezone the land for housing.

At a council meeting on Tuesday October 27, councillors endorsed a report outlining the council’s opposition to any future attempt to make it responsible for managing pollution impacts across the 18.8-hectare site.

Previously, the site operated as a sand quarry and landfill from the 1950s to the 1990s, with proposals to rezone it for residential development dating back to 2014.

Sterling Global, the property developer behind the project, has proposed a residential community – dubbed Talbot Village – with between 860 and 1,100 dwellings at 1221-1249 Centre Road in Oakleigh South.

The development plan has outlined dwellings would range from two to six storeys, with 10 percent locked off as affordable housing.

Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny has approved a planning scheme amendment to rezone the site for development into a residential and mixed-use neighbourhood.

The decision essentially deferred plans for gas venting and other environmental management measures to later stages.

Further planning permits and approvals are required before construction can begin, but the new zoning is expected to make the project easier to progress.

A December 2025 report also recommended the site be remediated and gas ventilation systems installed before any residential development go ahead.

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Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson has deflected questions over whether the spending commitments pledged by the Victorian Coalition would push the budget past its breaking point.

Speaking with veteran journalist Neil Mitchell on the latest episode of the Mitchell Unlimited podcast, Wilson repeatedly promised a Coalition government would be open, disciplined and responsible, but would not deny her party’s policies could be inflationary.

Wilson has been cautious with media in the run up to the November 28 election, having delayed a commitment to a leader’s debate between herself, Premier Ben Carroll, and Victoria One Nation leader Warren Pickering.

Wilson also faced criticism earlier this week for responding to only four minutes of questions from journalists at a press conference before leaving.

Friday’s thirty-minute interview with Mitchell is one of the most direct media appearances the Opposition leader has agreed to.

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Before we get into the news, here’s some events that you should save on your calendar.

The Labor Party is running Instagram accounts in NSW and Victoria that look and post like news outlets, and there are no rules stopping political parties from doing it.

The NSW account, newsnsw, described itself as “news from the NSW Government”. When we asked who was behind it, the government confirmed its involvement.

Curiously, about 30 minutes later, the account’s bio was updated to say it was authorised by the Australian Labor Party.

The Victorian account, Vicnewstoday, already carried Labor’s authorisation.

Watch Archie Milligan’s rundown here: